Snapshot-based disaster recovery orchestration of virtual machine failover and failback operations

ABSTRACT

Snapshot-based disaster recovery (DR) orchestration systems and methods for virtual machine (VM) failover and failback do not require that VMs or their corresponding datastores be actively operating at the DR site before a DR orchestration job is initiated, i.e., before failover. An illustrative data storage management system deploys proprietary components at source data center(s) and at DR site(s). The proprietary components (e.g., storage manager, data agents, media agents, backup nodes, etc.) interoperate with each other and with the source and DR components to ensure that VMs will successfully failover and/or failback. DR orchestration jobs are suitable for testing VM failover scenarios (“clone testing”), for conducting planned VM failovers, and for unplanned VM failovers. DR orchestration jobs also handle failback and integration of DR-generated data into the failback site, including restoring VMs that never failed over to fully re-populate the source/failback site.

INCORPORATION BY REFERENCE TO ANY PRIORITY APPLICATIONS

This application is a Continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No.16/831,562 filed on Mar. 26, 2020. Any and all applications for which aforeign or domestic priority claim is identified in the Application DataSheet of the present application are hereby incorporated by reference intheir entireties under 37 CFR 1.57.

COPYRIGHT NOTICE

A portion of the disclosure of this patent document contains materialwhich is subject to copyright protection. The copyright owner has noobjection to the facsimile reproduction by anyone of the patent documentand/or the patent disclosure as it appears in the United States Patentand Trademark Office patent file and/or records, but otherwise reservesall copyrights whatsoever.

BACKGROUND

Businesses recognize the commercial value of their data and seekreliable, cost-effective ways to protect the information stored on theircomputer networks while minimizing impact on productivity. A companymight back up critical computing systems such as databases, fileservers, web servers, virtual machines, and so on as part of amaintenance program. Given the rapidly expanding volume of data undermanagement, companies also continue to seek innovative and robusttechniques for ensuring disaster recovery will operate smoothly andreliably.

SUMMARY

The present inventors devised a scheme for disaster recovery (DR)orchestration of virtual machine (VM) failover and failback operations.An illustrative data storage management system deploys proprietarycomponents at source data center(s) and at DR site(s). The proprietarycomponents (e.g., storage manager, data agents, media agents, backupnodes, etc.) interoperate with each other and with the source and DRcomponents to ensure that VMs will successfully failover and/or failbackusing so-called “DR orchestration jobs.” DR orchestration jobs aresuitable for testing VM failover scenarios (“clone testing”), forconducting planned VM failovers, and for unplanned VM failovers. DRorchestration jobs also handle failback and integration of DR-generateddata into the failback site. As a shorthand, the illustrative approachis referred to herein as “snap-based DR orchestration.”

The illustrative system exploits snapshot replication techniques. Thesystem implements “snap backup jobs” that capture VM datastores at asource data center, in which so-called “hardware snapshots” are taken bythe datastore's host storage device (e.g., a storage array, filer,and/or cloud storage resources). The system implements “auxiliary copyjobs” to replicate the snapshots to the DR site. Collectively, thesejobs ensure that hardware snapshots regularly capture VM datastores atthe source and that the DR site regularly receives snapshotted datastoredata.

One of the advantages of the disclosed DR orchestration job is that itdoes not require that VMs or their corresponding datastores be activelyoperating at the DR site before the DR orchestration job is initiated,i.e., before failover. This approach is distinguishable from analternative proprietary approach known as “Live Sync,” which relies onongoing repetitive cycles of incremental backups at the source followedby restores at the DR site to maintain the DR site in a “warm” readinessstate that can take over with minimal start-up effort. (See, e.g., U.S.Pat. No. 10,228,962, which is incorporated by reference herein; see alsoFIG. 2A herein). Live Sync requires VMs and their datastores to beactively operating (powered up) at the DR site in order to sustain theongoing restore operations. With Live Sync, the DR site is operationalafter the first restore in a “warm” standby state. However, Live Synccan be relatively costly to operate and maintain as compared to theillustrative snap-based DR orchestration approach disclosed herein,because the Live Sync DR site must maintain actively operating VMs anddatastores as well as data restoration infrastructure. In cloudcomputing environments, maintaining powered up VMs and data storageresources indefinitely can be very costly. Thus the “warm” readiness ofLive Sync is counter-balanced by relatively high costs of operation andmaintenance of DR components and infrastructure.

In contrast to Live Sync, the illustrative snap-based DR orchestrationtakes a different approach that exploits snapshot techniques and otherkinds of backup operations (e.g., auxiliary copy jobs) to feed data fromsource to DR site, and does not rely on Live Sync's ongoing cycles ofbackup and restore to maintain the DR site. In contrast to Live Sync,the illustrative snap-based DR orchestration requires only minimalactive resources at the DR site until such time as the DR orchestrationjob initiates a failover to the DR site. Accordingly, VMs are keptpowered off at the DR site until failover. Even though data storage isconfigured at the DR site to receive snapshots replicated from thesource, no active connections are maintained to VM hosts and/or VMserver management resources and thus no datastores are established untilfailover. In cloud-based data centers, backup nodes that providebackup/restore infrastructure for completing the DR orchestration jobexecute on DR site VMs that are powered up on demand at failover incertain embodiments.

Thus, the illustrative snap-based DR orchestration approach requiresminimal active resources at the DR site until failover. The cost andeffort of maintaining active components at a “warm” DR site are alsoavoided by snap-based DR orchestration. Instead, the illustrativesnap-based DR orchestration approach relies on DR orchestration jobs toactivate connections, establish datastores, and power up VMs as neededat the DR site, and to tear down appropriately after failback completes.

To implement DR orchestration jobs, the illustrative data storagemanagement system is specially configured to track certainadministrative information at source and DR sites, coordinate operationsbetween the sites, and manage a number of operations at the DR site toensure a successful failover, and conversely to ensure successfulfailbacks to the source. According to the illustrative snap-based DRorchestration approach, source or DR site or both can be a virtualizedon-premises data center or a cloud computing environment, withoutlimitation. Thus, although many of the depicted scenarios illustrate avirtualized data center as a source production environment and a cloudcomputing environment as a failover/DR site, the embodiments are not solimited.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1A is a block diagram illustrating an exemplary informationmanagement system.

FIG. 1B is a detailed view of a primary storage device, a secondarystorage device, and some examples of primary data and secondary copydata.

FIG. 1C is a block diagram of an exemplary information management systemincluding a storage manager, one or more data agents, and one or moremedia agents.

FIG. 1D is a block diagram illustrating a scalable informationmanagement system.

FIG. 1E illustrates certain secondary copy operations according to anexemplary storage policy.

FIGS. 1F-1H are block diagrams illustrating suitable data structuresthat may be employed by the information management system.

FIG. 2A illustrates a system and technique for synchronizing primarydata to a destination such as a failover site using secondary copy data.

FIG. 2B illustrates an information management system architectureincorporating use of a network file system (NFS) protocol forcommunicating between the primary and secondary storage subsystems.

FIG. 2C is a block diagram of an example of a highly scalable manageddata pool architecture.

FIG. 3A is a block diagram illustrating system 300 for snap-baseddisaster recovery orchestration of virtual machine failover and failbackoperations, according to an illustrative embodiment.

FIG. 3B is a block diagram illustrating the system 300, wherein the DRsite is implemented in a cloud computing environment, according to anillustrative embodiment.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram illustrating some salient components of system300, according to an illustrative embodiment.

FIG. 5A is a block diagram illustrating some salient components ofsystem 300, wherein the source site and DR site are virtualized datacenters, according to an illustrative embodiment.

FIG. 5B is a block diagram illustrating some salient components ofsystem 300, wherein the DR site is implemented in a cloud computingenvironment, according to an illustrative embodiment.

FIG. 5C is a block diagram illustrating come salient components involvedin snap backup jobs and auxiliary copy jobs according to an illustrativeembodiment.

FIG. 6 is a flow chart that depicts some salient operations of a method600 according to an illustrative embodiment.

FIG. 7 depicts some salient operations of block 612 in method 600.

FIG. 8 depicts some salient operations of block 614 in method 600

FIG. 9 depicts some salient operations of block 616 in method 600

FIG. 10 depicts some salient operations of block 620 of method 600.

FIG. 11 depicts an illustrative screenshot of an administrative screenin system 300 for adding a failover group.

FIG. 12 depicts an illustrative screenshot of an administrative screenin system 300 for editing a failover group and adding customizationdetails for mapping source to destination relationships.

FIG. 13 depicts an illustrative screenshot of an administration screenfor defining how snapshot copies are to be replicated, showing a mirrorcopy option and an alternative vault copy option.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Detailed descriptions and examples of systems and methods according toone or more illustrative embodiments of the present invention may befound in the section entitled SNAPSHOT-BASED DISASTER RECOVERYORCHESTRATION OF VIRTUAL MACHINE FAILOVER AND FAILBACK OPERATIONS, aswell as in the section entitled Example Embodiments, and also in FIGS.3A-13 herein. Furthermore, components and functionality for snap-basedDR orchestration may be configured and/or incorporated into informationmanagement systems such as those described herein in FIGS. 1A-1H and2A-2C.

Various embodiments described herein are intimately tied to, enabled by,and would not exist except for, computer technology. For example, takingsnapshots, replicating snapshots, activating VMs, orchestratingfailbacks, orchestrating and integrating failbacks, etc. describedherein in reference to various embodiments cannot reasonably beperformed by humans alone, without the computer technology upon whichthey are implemented.

Information Management System Overview

With the increasing importance of protecting and leveraging data,organizations simply cannot risk losing critical data. Moreover, runawaydata growth and other modern realities make protecting and managing dataincreasingly difficult. There is therefore a need for efficient,powerful, and user-friendly solutions for protecting and managing dataand for smart and efficient management of data storage. Depending on thesize of the organization, there may be many data production sourceswhich are under the purview of tens, hundreds, or even thousands ofindividuals. In the past, individuals were sometimes responsible formanaging and protecting their own data, and a patchwork of hardware andsoftware point solutions may have been used in any given organization.These solutions were often provided by different vendors and had limitedor no interoperability. Certain embodiments described herein addressthese and other shortcomings of prior approaches by implementingscalable, unified, organization-wide information management, includingdata storage management.

FIG. 1A shows one such information management system 100 (or “system100”), which generally includes combinations of hardware and softwareconfigured to protect and manage data and metadata that are generatedand used by computing devices in system 100. System 100 may be referredto in some embodiments as a “storage management system” or a “datastorage management system.” System 100 performs information managementoperations, some of which may be referred to as “storage operations” or“data storage operations,” to protect and manage the data residing inand/or managed by system 100. The organization that employs system 100may be a corporation or other business entity, non-profit organization,educational institution, household, governmental agency, or the like.

Generally, the systems and associated components described herein may becompatible with and/or provide some or all of the functionality of thesystems and corresponding components described in one or more of thefollowing U.S. patents/publications and patent applications assigned toCommvault Systems, Inc., each of which is hereby incorporated byreference in its entirety herein:

-   -   U.S. Pat. No. 7,035,880, entitled “Modular Backup and Retrieval        System Used in Conjunction With a Storage Area Network”;    -   U.S. Pat. No. 7,107,298, entitled “System And Method For        Archiving Objects In An Information Store”;    -   U.S. Pat. No. 7,246,207, entitled “System and Method for        Dynamically Performing Storage Operations in a Computer        Network”;    -   U.S. Pat. No. 7,315,923, entitled “System And Method For        Combining Data Streams In Pipelined Storage Operations In A        Storage Network”;    -   U.S. Pat. No. 7,343,453, entitled “Hierarchical Systems and        Methods for Providing a Unified View of Storage Information”;    -   U.S. Pat. No. 7,395,282, entitled “Hierarchical Backup and        Retrieval System”;    -   U.S. Pat. No. 7,529,782, entitled “System and Methods for        Performing a Snapshot and for Restoring Data”;    -   U.S. Pat. No. 7,617,262, entitled “System and Methods for        Monitoring Application Data in a Data Replication System”;    -   U.S. Pat. No. 7,734,669, entitled “Managing Copies Of Data”;    -   U.S. Pat. No. 7,747,579, entitled “Metabase for Facilitating        Data Classification”;    -   U.S. Pat. No. 8,156,086, entitled “Systems And Methods For        Stored Data Verification”;    -   U.S. Pat. No. 8,170,995, entitled “Method and System for Offline        Indexing of Content and Classifying Stored Data”;    -   U.S. Pat. No. 8,230,195, entitled “System And Method For        Performing Auxiliary Storage Operations”;    -   U.S. Pat. No. 8,285,681, entitled “Data Object Store and Server        for a Cloud Storage Environment, Including Data Deduplication        and Data Management Across Multiple Cloud Storage Sites”;    -   U.S. Pat. No. 8,307,177, entitled “Systems And Methods For        Management Of Virtualization Data”;    -   U.S. Pat. No. 8,364,652, entitled “Content-Aligned, Block-Based        Deduplication”;    -   U.S. Pat. No. 8,578,120, entitled “Block-Level Single        Instancing”;    -   U.S. Pat. No. 8,954,446, entitled “Client-Side Repository in a        Networked Deduplicated Storage System”;    -   U.S. Pat. No. 9,020,900, entitled “Distributed Deduplicated        Storage System”;    -   U.S. Pat. No. 9,098,495, entitled “Application-Aware and Remote        Single Instance Data Management”;    -   U.S. Pat. No. 9,239,687, entitled “Systems and Methods for        Retaining and Using Data Block Signatures in Data Protection        Operations”;    -   U.S. Pat. No. 9,633,033, entitled “High Availability Distributed        Deduplicated Storage System”;

-   U.S. Pat. Pub. No. 2006/0224846, entitled “System and Method to    Support Single Instance Storage Operations”;

-   U.S. Pat. Pub. No. 2016-0350391, entitled “Replication Using    Deduplicated Secondary Copy Data”;

-   U.S. Pat. Pub. No. 2017-0168903 A1, entitled “Live Synchronization    and Management of Virtual Machines across Computing and    Virtualization Platforms and Using Live Synchronization to Support    Disaster Recovery”;

-   U.S. Pat. Pub. No. 2017-0185488 A1, entitled “ Application-Level    Live Synchronization Across Computing Platforms Including    Synchronizing Co-Resident Applications To Disparate Standby    Destinations And Selectively Synchronizing Some Applications And Not    Others”;

-   U.S. Pat. Pub. No. 2017-0192866 A1, entitled “System For Redirecting    Requests After A Secondary Storage Computing Device Failure”;

-   U.S. Pat. Pub. No. 2017-0235647 A1, entitled “Data Protection    Operations Based on Network Path Information”;

-   and

-   U.S. Pat. Pub. No. 2017-0242871 A1, entitled “Data Restoration    Operations Based on Network Path Information”.

System 100 includes computing devices and computing technologies. Forinstance, system 100 can include one or more client computing devices102 and secondary storage computing devices 106, as well as storagemanager 140 or a host computing device for it. Computing devices caninclude, without limitation, one or more: workstations, personalcomputers, desktop computers, or other types of generally fixedcomputing systems such as mainframe computers, servers, andminicomputers. Other computing devices can include mobile or portablecomputing devices, such as one or more laptops, tablet computers,personal data assistants, mobile phones (such as smartphones), and othermobile or portable computing devices such as embedded computers, set topboxes, vehicle-mounted devices, wearable computers, etc. Servers caninclude mail servers, file servers, database servers, virtual machineservers, and web servers. Any given computing device comprises one ormore processors (e.g., CPU and/or single-core or multi-core processors),as well as corresponding non-transitory computer memory (e.g.,random-access memory (RAM)) for storing computer programs which are tobe executed by the one or more processors. Other computer memory formass storage of data may be packaged/configured with the computingdevice (e.g., an internal hard disk) and/or may be external andaccessible by the computing device (e.g., network-attached storage, astorage array, etc.). In some cases, a computing device includes cloudcomputing resources, which may be implemented as virtual machines. Forinstance, one or more virtual machines may be provided to theorganization by a third-party cloud service vendor.

In some embodiments, computing devices can include one or more virtualmachine(s) running on a physical host computing device (or “hostmachine”) operated by the organization. As one example, the organizationmay use one virtual machine as a database server and another virtualmachine as a mail server, both virtual machines operating on the samehost machine. A Virtual machine (“VM”) is a software implementation of acomputer that does not physically exist and is instead instantiated inan operating system of a physical computer (or host machine) to enableapplications to execute within the VM's environment, i.e., a VM emulatesa physical computer. AVM includes an operating system and associatedvirtual resources, such as computer memory and processor(s). Ahypervisor operates between the VM and the hardware of the physical hostmachine and is generally responsible for creating and running the VMs.Hypervisors are also known in the art as virtual machine monitors or avirtual machine managers or “VMMs”, and may be implemented in software,firmware, and/or specialized hardware installed on the host machine.Examples of hypervisors include ESX Server, by VMware, Inc. of PaloAlto, Calif.; Microsoft Virtual Server and Microsoft Windows ServerHyper-V, both by Microsoft Corporation of Redmond, Washington; Sun xVMby Oracle America Inc. of Santa Clara, Calif.; and Xen by CitrixSystems, Santa Clara, Calif. The hypervisor provides resources to eachvirtual operating system such as a virtual processor, virtual memory, avirtual network device, and a virtual disk. Each virtual machine has oneor more associated virtual disks. The hypervisor typically stores thedata of virtual disks in files on the file system of the physical hostmachine, called virtual machine disk files (“VMDK” in VMware lingo) orvirtual hard disk image files (in Microsoft lingo). For example,VMware's ESX Server provides the Virtual Machine File System (VMFS) forthe storage of virtual machine disk files. A virtual machine reads datafrom and writes data to its virtual disk much the way that a physicalmachine reads data from and writes data to a physical disk. Examples oftechniques for implementing information management in a cloud computingenvironment are described in U.S. Pat. No. 8,285,681. Examples oftechniques for implementing information management in a virtualizedcomputing environment are described in U.S. Patent No. 8,307,177.

Information management system 100 can also include electronic datastorage devices, generally used for mass storage of data, including,e.g., primary storage devices 104 and secondary storage devices 108.Storage devices can generally be of any suitable type including, withoutlimitation, disk drives, storage arrays (e.g., storage-area network(SAN) and/or network-attached storage (NAS) technology), semiconductormemory (e.g., solid state storage devices), network attached storage(NAS) devices, tape libraries, or other magnetic, non-tape storagedevices, optical media storage devices, combinations of the same, etc.In some embodiments, storage devices form part of a distributed filesystem. In some cases, storage devices are provided in a cloud storageenvironment (e.g., a private cloud or one operated by a third-partyvendor), whether for primary data or secondary copies or both.

Depending on context, the term “information management system” can referto generally all of the illustrated hardware and software components inFIG. 1C, or the term may refer to only a subset of the illustratedcomponents. For instance, in some cases, system 100 generally refers toa combination of specialized components used to protect, move, manage,manipulate, analyze, and/or process data and metadata generated byclient computing devices 102. However, system 100 in some cases does notinclude the underlying components that generate and/or store primarydata 112, such as the client computing devices 102 themselves, and theprimary storage devices 104. Likewise secondary storage devices 108(e.g., a third-party provided cloud storage environment) may not be partof system 100. As an example, “information management system” or“storage management system” may sometimes refer to one or more of thefollowing components, which will be described in further detail below:storage manager, data agent, and media agent.

One or more client computing devices 102 may be part of system 100, eachclient computing device 102 having an operating system and at least oneapplication 110 and one or more accompanying data agents executingthereon; and associated with one or more primary storage devices 104storing primary data 112. Client computing device(s) 102 and primarystorage devices 104 may generally be referred to in some cases asprimary storage subsystem 117.

Client Computing Devices, Clients, and Subclients

Typically, a variety of sources in an organization produce data to beprotected and managed. As just one illustrative example, in a corporateenvironment such data sources can be employee workstations and companyservers such as a mail server, a web server, a database server, atransaction server, or the like. In system 100, data generation sourcesinclude one or more client computing devices 102. A computing devicethat has a data agent 142 installed and operating on it is generallyreferred to as a “client computing device” 102, and may include any typeof computing device, without limitation. A client computing device 102may be associated with one or more users and/or user accounts.

A “client” is a logical component of information management system 100,which may represent a logical grouping of one or more data agentsinstalled on a client computing device 102. Storage manager 140recognizes a client as a component of system 100, and in someembodiments, may automatically create a client component the first timea data agent 142 is installed on a client computing device 102. Becausedata generated by executable component(s) 110 is tracked by theassociated data agent 142 so that it may be properly protected in system100, a client may be said to generate data and to store the generateddata to primary storage, such as primary storage device 104. However,the terms “client” and “client computing device” as used herein do notimply that a client computing device 102 is necessarily configured inthe client/server sense relative to another computing device such as amail server, or that a client computing device 102 cannot be a server inits own right. As just a few examples, a client computing device 102 canbe and/or include mail servers, file servers, database servers, virtualmachine servers, and/or web servers.

Each client computing device 102 may have application(s) 110 executingthereon which generate and manipulate the data that is to be protectedfrom loss and managed in system 100. Applications 110 generallyfacilitate the operations of an organization, and can include, withoutlimitation, mail server applications (e.g., Microsoft Exchange Server),file system applications, mail client applications (e.g., MicrosoftExchange Client), database applications or database management systems(e.g., SQL, Oracle, SAP, Lotus Notes Database), word processingapplications (e.g., Microsoft Word), spreadsheet applications, financialapplications, presentation applications, graphics and/or videoapplications, browser applications, mobile applications, entertainmentapplications, and so on. Each application 110 may be accompanied by anapplication-specific data agent 142, though not all data agents 142 areapplication-specific or associated with only application. A file managerapplication, e.g., Microsoft Windows Explorer, may be considered anapplication 110 and may be accompanied by its own data agent 142. Clientcomputing devices 102 can have at least one operating system (e.g.,Microsoft Windows, Mac OS X, iOS, IBM z/OS, Linux, other Unix-basedoperating systems, etc.) installed thereon, which may support or hostone or more file systems and other applications 110. In someembodiments, a virtual machine that executes on a host client computingdevice 102 may be considered an application 110 and may be accompaniedby a specific data agent 142 (e.g., virtual server data agent).

Client computing devices 102 and other components in system 100 can beconnected to one another via one or more electronic communicationpathways 114. For example, a first communication pathway 114 maycommunicatively couple client computing device 102 and secondary storagecomputing device 106; a second communication pathway 114 maycommunicatively couple storage manager 140 and client computing device102; and a third communication pathway 114 may communicatively couplestorage manager 140 and secondary storage computing device 106, etc.(see, e.g., FIG. 1A and FIG. 1C). A communication pathway 114 caninclude one or more networks or other connection types including one ormore of the following, without limitation: the Internet, a wide areanetwork (WAN), a local area network (LAN), a Storage Area Network (SAN),a Fibre Channel (FC) connection, a Small Computer System Interface(SCSI) connection, a virtual private network (VPN), a token ring orTCP/IP based network, an intranet network, a point-to-point link, acellular network, a wireless data transmission system, a two-way cablesystem, an interactive kiosk network, a satellite network, a broadbandnetwork, a baseband network, a neural network, a mesh network, an ad hocnetwork, other appropriate computer or telecommunications networks,combinations of the same or the like. Communication pathways 114 in somecases may also include application programming interfaces (APIs)including, e.g., cloud service provider APIs, virtual machine managementAPIs, and hosted service provider APIs. The underlying infrastructure ofcommunication pathways 114 may be wired and/or wireless, analog and/ordigital, or any combination thereof; and the facilities used may beprivate, public, third-party provided, or any combination thereof,without limitation.

A “subclient” is a logical grouping of all or part of a client's primarydata 112. In general, a subclient may be defined according to how thesubclient data is to be protected as a unit in system 100. For example,a subclient may be associated with a certain storage policy. A givenclient may thus comprise several subclients, each subclient associatedwith a different storage policy. For example, some files may form afirst subclient that requires compression and deduplication and isassociated with a first storage policy. Other files of the client mayform a second subclient that requires a different retention schedule aswell as encryption, and may be associated with a different, secondstorage policy. As a result, though the primary data may be generated bythe same application 110 and may belong to one given client, portions ofthe data may be assigned to different subclients for distinct treatmentby system 100. More detail on subclients is given in regard to storagepolicies below.

Primary Data and Exemplary Primary Storage Devices

Primary data 112 is generally production data or “live” data generatedby the operating system and/or applications 110 executing on clientcomputing device 102. Primary data 112 is generally stored on primarystorage device(s) 104 and is organized via a file system operating onthe client computing device 102. Thus, client computing device(s) 102and corresponding applications 110 may create, access, modify, write,delete, and otherwise use primary data 112. Primary data 112 isgenerally in the native format of the source application 110. Primarydata 112 is an initial or first stored body of data generated by thesource application 110. Primary data 112 in some cases is createdsubstantially directly from data generated by the corresponding sourceapplication 110. It can be useful in performing certain tasks toorganize primary data 112 into units of different granularities. Ingeneral, primary data 112 can include files, directories, file systemvolumes, data blocks, extents, or any other hierarchies or organizationsof data objects. As used herein, a “data object” can refer to (i) anyfile that is currently addressable by a file system or that waspreviously addressable by the file system (e.g., an archive file),and/or to (ii) a subset of such a file (e.g., a data block, an extent,etc.). Primary data 112 may include structured data (e.g., databasefiles), unstructured data (e.g., documents), and/or semi-structureddata. See, e.g., FIG. 1B.

It can also be useful in performing certain functions of system 100 toaccess and modify metadata within primary data 112. Metadata generallyincludes information about data objects and/or characteristicsassociated with the data objects. For simplicity herein, it is to beunderstood that, unless expressly stated otherwise, any reference toprimary data 112 generally also includes its associated metadata, butreferences to metadata generally do not include the primary data.Metadata can include, without limitation, one or more of the following:the data owner (e.g., the client or user that generates the data), thelast modified time (e.g., the time of the most recent modification ofthe data object), a data object name (e.g., a file name), a data objectsize (e.g., a number of bytes of data), information about the content(e.g., an indication as to the existence of a particular search term),user-supplied tags, to/from information for email (e.g., an emailsender, recipient, etc.), creation date, file type (e.g., format orapplication type), last accessed time, application type (e.g., type ofapplication that generated the data object), location/network (e.g., acurrent, past or future location of the data object and network pathwaysto/from the data object), geographic location (e.g., GPS coordinates),frequency of change (e.g., a period in which the data object ismodified), business unit (e.g., a group or department that generates,manages or is otherwise associated with the data object), aginginformation (e.g., a schedule, such as a time period, in which the dataobject is migrated to secondary or long term storage), boot sectors,partition layouts, file location within a file folder directorystructure, user permissions, owners, groups, access control lists(ACLs), system metadata (e.g., registry information), combinations ofthe same or other similar information related to the data object. Inaddition to metadata generated by or related to file systems andoperating systems, some applications 110 and/or other components ofsystem 100 maintain indices of metadata for data objects, e.g., metadataassociated with individual email messages. The use of metadata toperform classification and other functions is described in greaterdetail below.

Primary storage devices 104 storing primary data 112 may be relativelyfast and/or expensive technology (e.g., flash storage, a disk drive, ahard-disk storage array, solid state memory, etc.), typically to supporthigh-performance live production environments. Primary data 112 may behighly changeable and/or may be intended for relatively short termretention (e.g., hours, days, or weeks). According to some embodiments,client computing device 102 can access primary data 112 stored inprimary storage device 104 by making conventional file system calls viathe operating system. Each client computing device 102 is generallyassociated with and/or in communication with one or more primary storagedevices 104 storing corresponding primary data 112. A client computingdevice 102 is said to be associated with or in communication with aparticular primary storage device 104 if it is capable of one or moreof: routing and/or storing data (e.g., primary data 112) to the primarystorage device 104, coordinating the routing and/or storing of data tothe primary storage device 104, retrieving data from the primary storagedevice 104, coordinating the retrieval of data from the primary storagedevice 104, and modifying and/or deleting data in the primary storagedevice 104. Thus, a client computing device 102 may be said to accessdata stored in an associated storage device 104.

Primary storage device 104 may be dedicated or shared. In some cases,each primary storage device 104 is dedicated to an associated clientcomputing device 102, e.g., a local disk drive. In other cases, one ormore primary storage devices 104 can be shared by multiple clientcomputing devices 102, e.g., via a local network, in a cloud storageimplementation, etc. As one example, primary storage device 104 can be astorage array shared by a group of client computing devices 102, such asEMC Clariion, EMC Symmetrix, EMC Celerra, Dell EqualLogic, IBM XIV,NetApp FAS, HP EVA, and HP 3PAR.

System 100 may also include hosted services (not shown), which may behosted in some cases by an entity other than the organization thatemploys the other components of system 100. For instance, the hostedservices may be provided by online service providers. Such serviceproviders can provide social networking services, hosted email services,or hosted productivity applications or other hosted applications such assoftware-as-a-service (SaaS), platform-as-a-service (PaaS), applicationservice providers (ASPs), cloud services, or other mechanisms fordelivering functionality via a network. As it services users, eachhosted service may generate additional data and metadata, which may bemanaged by system 100, e.g., as primary data 112. In some cases, thehosted services may be accessed using one of the applications 110. As anexample, a hosted mail service may be accessed via browser running on aclient computing device 102.

Secondary Copies and Exemplary Secondary Storage Devices

Primary data 112 stored on primary storage devices 104 may becompromised in some cases, such as when an employee deliberately oraccidentally deletes or overwrites primary data 112. Or primary storagedevices 104 can be damaged, lost, or otherwise corrupted. For recoveryand/or regulatory compliance purposes, it is therefore useful togenerate and maintain copies of primary data 112. Accordingly, system100 includes one or more secondary storage computing devices 106 and oneor more secondary storage devices 108 configured to create and store oneor more secondary copies 116 of primary data 112 including itsassociated metadata. The secondary storage computing devices 106 and thesecondary storage devices 108 may be referred to as secondary storagesubsystem 118.

Secondary copies 116 can help in search and analysis efforts and meetother information management goals as well, such as: restoring dataand/or metadata if an original version is lost (e.g., by deletion,corruption, or disaster); allowing point-in-time recovery; complyingwith regulatory data retention and electronic discovery (e-discovery)requirements; reducing utilized storage capacity in the productionsystem and/or in secondary storage; facilitating organization and searchof data; improving user access to data files across multiple computingdevices and/or hosted services; and implementing data retention andpruning policies.

A secondary copy 116 can comprise a separate stored copy of data that isderived from one or more earlier-created stored copies (e.g., derivedfrom primary data 112 or from another secondary copy 116). Secondarycopies 116 can include point-in-time data, and may be intended forrelatively long-term retention before some or all of the data is movedto other storage or discarded. In some cases, a secondary copy 116 maybe in a different storage device than other previously stored copies;and/or may be remote from other previously stored copies. Secondarycopies 116 can be stored in the same storage device as primary data 112.For example, a disk array capable of performing hardware snapshotsstores primary data 112 and creates and stores hardware snapshots of theprimary data 112 as secondary copies 116. Secondary copies 116 may bestored in relatively slow and/or lower cost storage (e.g., magnetictape). A secondary copy 116 may be stored in a backup or archive format,or in some other format different from the native source applicationformat or other format of primary data 112.

Secondary storage computing devices 106 may index secondary copies 116(e.g., using a media agent 144), enabling users to browse and restore ata later time and further enabling the lifecycle management of theindexed data. After creation of a secondary copy 116 that representscertain primary data 112, a pointer or other location indicia (e.g., astub) may be placed in primary data 112, or be otherwise associated withprimary data 112, to indicate the current location of a particularsecondary copy 116. Since an instance of a data object or metadata inprimary data 112 may change over time as it is modified by application110 (or hosted service or the operating system), system 100 may createand manage multiple secondary copies 116 of a particular data object ormetadata, each copy representing the state of the data object in primarydata 112 at a particular point in time. Moreover, since an instance of adata object in primary data 112 may eventually be deleted from primarystorage device 104 and the file system, system 100 may continue tomanage point-in-time representations of that data object, even thoughthe instance in primary data 112 no longer exists. For virtual machines,the operating system and other applications 110 of client computingdevice(s) 102 may execute within or under the management ofvirtualization software (e.g., a VMM), and the primary storage device(s)104 may comprise a virtual disk created on a physical storage device.System 100 may create secondary copies 116 of the files or other dataobjects in a virtual disk file and/or secondary copies 116 of the entirevirtual disk file itself (e.g., of an entire.vmdk file).

Secondary copies 116 are distinguishable from corresponding primary data112. First, secondary copies 116 can be stored in a different formatfrom primary data 112 (e.g., backup, archive, or other non-nativeformat). For this or other reasons, secondary copies 116 may not bedirectly usable by applications 110 or client computing device 102(e.g., via standard system calls or otherwise) without modification,processing, or other intervention by system 100 which may be referred toas “restore” operations. Secondary copies 116 may have been processed bydata agent 142 and/or media agent 144 in the course of being created(e.g., compression, deduplication, encryption, integrity markers,indexing, formatting, application-aware metadata, etc.), and thussecondary copy 116 may represent source primary data 112 withoutnecessarily being exactly identical to the source.

Second, secondary copies 116 may be stored on a secondary storage device108 that is inaccessible to application 110 running on client computingdevice 102 and/or hosted service. Some secondary copies 116 may be“offline copies,” in that they are not readily available (e.g., notmounted to tape or disk). Offline copies can include copies of data thatsystem 100 can access without human intervention (e.g., tapes within anautomated tape library, but not yet mounted in a drive), and copies thatthe system 100 can access only with some human intervention (e.g., tapeslocated at an offsite storage site).

Using Intermediate Devices for Creating Secondary Copies—SecondaryStorage Computing Devices

Creating secondary copies can be challenging when hundreds or thousandsof client computing devices 102 continually generate large volumes ofprimary data 112 to be protected. Also, there can be significantoverhead involved in the creation of secondary copies 116. Moreover,specialized programmed intelligence and/or hardware capability isgenerally needed for accessing and interacting with secondary storagedevices 108. Client computing devices 102 may interact directly with asecondary storage device 108 to create secondary copies 116, but in viewof the factors described above, this approach can negatively impact theability of client computing device 102 to serve/service application 110and produce primary data 112. Further, any given client computing device102 may not be optimized for interaction with certain secondary storagedevices 108.

Thus, system 100 may include one or more software and/or hardwarecomponents which generally act as intermediaries between clientcomputing devices 102 (that generate primary data 112) and secondarystorage devices 108 (that store secondary copies 116). In addition tooff-loading certain responsibilities from client computing devices 102,these intermediate components provide other benefits. For instance, asdiscussed further below with respect to FIG. 1D, distributing some ofthe work involved in creating secondary copies 116 can enhancescalability and improve system performance. For instance, usingspecialized secondary storage computing devices 106 and media agents 144for interfacing with secondary storage devices 108 and/or for performingcertain data processing operations can greatly improve the speed withwhich system 100 performs information management operations and can alsoimprove the capacity of the system to handle large numbers of suchoperations, while reducing the computational load on the productionenvironment of client computing devices 102. The intermediate componentscan include one or more secondary storage computing devices 106 as shownin FIG. 1A and/or one or more media agents 144. Media agents arediscussed further below (e.g., with respect to FIGS. 1C-1E). Thesespecial-purpose components of system 100 comprise specialized programmedintelligence and/or hardware capability for writing to, reading from,instructing, communicating with, or otherwise interacting with secondarystorage devices 108.

Secondary storage computing device(s) 106 can comprise any of thecomputing devices described above, without limitation. In some cases,secondary storage computing device(s) 106 also include specializedhardware componentry and/or software intelligence (e.g., specializedinterfaces) for interacting with certain secondary storage device(s) 108with which they may be specially associated.

To create a secondary copy 116 involving the copying of data fromprimary storage subsystem 117 to secondary storage subsystem 118, clientcomputing device 102 may communicate the primary data 112 to be copied(or a processed version thereof generated by a data agent 142) to thedesignated secondary storage computing device 106, via a communicationpathway 114. Secondary storage computing device 106 in turn may furtherprocess and convey the data or a processed version thereof to secondarystorage device 108. One or more secondary copies 116 may be created fromexisting secondary copies 116, such as in the case of an auxiliary copyoperation, described further below.

Exemplary Primary Data and an Exemplary Secondary Copy

FIG. 1B is a detailed view of some specific examples of primary datastored on primary storage device(s) 104 and secondary copy data storedon secondary storage device(s) 108, with other components of the systemremoved for the purposes of illustration. Stored on primary storagedevice(s) 104 are primary data 112 objects including word processingdocuments 119A-B, spreadsheets 120, presentation documents 122, videofiles 124, image files 126, email mailboxes 128 (and corresponding emailmessages 129A-C), HTML/XML or other types of markup language files 130,databases 132 and corresponding tables or other data structures133A-133C. Some or all primary data 112 objects are associated withcorresponding metadata (e.g., “Meta1-11”), which may include file systemmetadata and/or application-specific metadata. Stored on the secondarystorage device(s) 108 are secondary copy 116 data objects 134A-C whichmay include copies of or may otherwise represent corresponding primarydata 112.

Secondary copy data objects 134A-C can individually represent more thanone primary data object. For example, secondary copy data object 134Arepresents three separate primary data objects 133C, 122, and 129C(represented as 133C′, 122′, and 129C′, respectively, and accompanied bycorresponding metadata Meta11, Meta3, and Meta8, respectively).Moreover, as indicated by the prime mark (′), secondary storagecomputing devices 106 or other components in secondary storage subsystem118 may process the data received from primary storage subsystem 117 andstore a secondary copy including a transformed and/or supplementedrepresentation of a primary data object and/or metadata that isdifferent from the original format, e.g., in a compressed, encrypted,deduplicated, or other modified format. For instance, secondary storagecomputing devices 106 can generate new metadata or other informationbased on said processing, and store the newly generated informationalong with the secondary copies. Secondary copy data object 1346represents primary data objects 120, 1336, and 119A as 120′, 1336′, and119A′, respectively, accompanied by corresponding metadata Meta2,Meta10, and Meta1, respectively. Also, secondary copy data object 134Crepresents primary data objects 133A, 1196, and 129A as 133A′, 1196′,and 129A′, respectively, accompanied by corresponding metadata Meta9,Meta5, and Meta6, respectively.

Exemplary Information Management System Architecture

System 100 can incorporate a variety of different hardware and softwarecomponents, which can in turn be organized with respect to one anotherin many different configurations, depending on the embodiment. There arecritical design choices involved in specifying the functionalresponsibilities of the components and the role of each component insystem 100. Such design choices can impact how system 100 performs andadapts to data growth and other changing circumstances. FIG. 1C shows asystem 100 designed according to these considerations and includes:storage manager 140, one or more data agents 142 executing on clientcomputing device(s) 102 and configured to process primary data 112, andone or more media agents 144 executing on one or more secondary storagecomputing devices 106 for performing tasks involving secondary storagedevices 108.

Storage Manager

Storage manager 140 is a centralized storage and/or information managerthat is configured to perform certain control functions and also tostore certain critical information about system 100—hence storagemanager 140 is said to manage system 100. As noted, the number ofcomponents in system 100 and the amount of data under management can belarge. Managing the components and data is therefore a significant task,which can grow unpredictably as the number of components and data scaleto meet the needs of the organization. For these and other reasons,according to certain embodiments, responsibility for controlling system100, or at least a significant portion of that responsibility, isallocated to storage manager 140. Storage manager 140 can be adaptedindependently according to changing circumstances, without having toreplace or re-design the remainder of the system. Moreover, a computingdevice for hosting and/or operating as storage manager 140 can beselected to best suit the functions and networking needs of storagemanager 140. These and other advantages are described in further detailbelow and with respect to FIG. 1D.

Storage manager 140 may be a software module or other application hostedby a suitable computing device. In some embodiments, storage manager 140is itself a computing device that performs the functions describedherein. Storage manager 140 comprises or operates in conjunction withone or more associated data structures such as a dedicated database(e.g., management database 146), depending on the configuration. Thestorage manager 140 generally initiates, performs, coordinates, and/orcontrols storage and other information management operations performedby system 100, e.g., to protect and control primary data 112 andsecondary copies 116. In general, storage manager 140 is said to managesystem 100, which includes communicating with, instructing, andcontrolling in some circumstances components such as data agents 142 andmedia agents 144, etc.

As shown by the dashed arrowed lines 114 in FIG. 1C, storage manager 140may communicate with, instruct, and/or control some or all elements ofsystem 100, such as data agents 142 and media agents 144. In thismanner, storage manager 140 manages the operation of various hardwareand software components in system 100. In certain embodiments, controlinformation originates from storage manager 140 and status as well asindex reporting is transmitted to storage manager 140 by the managedcomponents, whereas payload data and metadata are generally communicatedbetween data agents 142 and media agents 144 (or otherwise betweenclient computing device(s) 102 and secondary storage computing device(s)106), e.g., at the direction of and under the management of storagemanager 140. Control information can generally include parameters andinstructions for carrying out information management operations, suchas, without limitation, instructions to perform a task associated withan operation, timing information specifying when to initiate a task,data path information specifying what components to communicate with oraccess in carrying out an operation, and the like. In other embodiments,some information management operations are controlled or initiated byother components of system 100 (e.g., by media agents 144 or data agents142), instead of or in combination with storage manager 140.

According to certain embodiments, storage manager 140 provides one ormore of the following functions:

-   -   communicating with data agents 142 and media agents 144,        including transmitting instructions, messages, and/or queries,        as well as receiving status reports, index information,        messages, and/or queries, and responding to same;    -   initiating execution of information management operations;    -   initiating restore and recovery operations;    -   managing secondary storage devices 108 and inventory/capacity of        the same;    -   allocating secondary storage devices 108 for secondary copy        operations;    -   reporting, searching, and/or classification of data in system        100;    -   monitoring completion of and status reporting related to        information management operations and jobs;    -   tracking movement of data within system 100;    -   tracking age information relating to secondary copies 116,        secondary storage devices 108, comparing the age information        against retention guidelines, and initiating data pruning when        appropriate;    -   tracking logical associations between components in system 100;    -   protecting metadata associated with system 100, e.g., in        management database 146;    -   implementing job management, schedule management, event        management, alert management, reporting, job history        maintenance, user security management, disaster recovery        management, and/or user interfacing for system administrators        and/or end users of system 100;    -   sending, searching, and/or viewing of log files; and    -   implementing operations management functionality.

Storage manager 140 may maintain an associated database 146 (or “storagemanager database 146” or “management database 146”) ofmanagement-related data and information management policies 148.Database 146 is stored in computer memory accessible by storage manager140. Database 146 may include a management index 150 (or “index 150”) orother data structure(s) that may store: logical associations betweencomponents of the system; user preferences and/or profiles (e.g.,preferences regarding encryption, compression, or deduplication ofprimary data or secondary copies; preferences regarding the scheduling,type, or other aspects of secondary copy or other operations; mappingsof particular information management users or user accounts to certaincomputing devices or other components, etc.; management tasks; mediacontainerization; other useful data; and/or any combination thereof. Forexample, storage manager 140 may use index 150 to track logicalassociations between media agents 144 and secondary storage devices 108and/or movement of data to/from secondary storage devices 108. Forinstance, index 150 may store data associating a client computing device102 with a particular media agent 144 and/or secondary storage device108, as specified in an information management policy 148.

Administrators and others may configure and initiate certain informationmanagement operations on an individual basis. But while this may beacceptable for some recovery operations or other infrequent tasks, it isoften not workable for implementing on-going organization-wide dataprotection and management. Thus, system 100 may utilize informationmanagement policies 148 for specifying and executing informationmanagement operations on an automated basis. Generally, an informationmanagement policy 148 can include a stored data structure or otherinformation source that specifies parameters (e.g., criteria and rules)associated with storage management or other information managementoperations. Storage manager 140 can process an information managementpolicy 148 and/or index 150 and, based on the results, identify aninformation management operation to perform, identify the appropriatecomponents in system 100 to be involved in the operation (e.g., clientcomputing devices 102 and corresponding data agents 142, secondarystorage computing devices 106 and corresponding media agents 144, etc.),establish connections to those components and/or between thosecomponents, and/or instruct and control those components to carry outthe operation. In this manner, system 100 can translate storedinformation into coordinated activity among the various computingdevices in system 100.

Management database 146 may maintain information management policies 148and associated data, although information management policies 148 can bestored in computer memory at any appropriate location outside managementdatabase 146. For instance, an information management policy 148 such asa storage policy may be stored as metadata in a media agent database 152or in a secondary storage device 108 (e.g., as an archive copy) for usein restore or other information management operations, depending on theembodiment. Information management policies 148 are described furtherbelow. According to certain embodiments, management database 146comprises a relational database (e.g., an SQL database) for trackingmetadata, such as metadata associated with secondary copy operations(e.g., what client computing devices 102 and corresponding subclientdata were protected and where the secondary copies are stored and whichmedia agent 144 performed the storage operation(s)). This and othermetadata may additionally be stored in other locations, such as atsecondary storage computing device 106 or on the secondary storagedevice 108, allowing data recovery without the use of storage manager140 in some cases. Thus, management database 146 may comprise dataneeded to kick off secondary copy operations (e.g., storage policies,schedule policies, etc.), status and reporting information aboutcompleted jobs (e.g., status and error reports on yesterday's backupjobs), and additional information sufficient to enable restore anddisaster recovery operations (e.g., media agent associations, locationindexing, content indexing, etc.).

Storage manager 140 may include a jobs agent 156, a user interface 158,and a management agent 154, all of which may be implemented asinterconnected software modules or application programs. These aredescribed further below.

Jobs agent 156 in some embodiments initiates, controls, and/or monitorsthe status of some or all information management operations previouslyperformed, currently being performed, or scheduled to be performed bysystem 100. A job is a logical grouping of information managementoperations such as daily storage operations scheduled for a certain setof subclients (e.g., generating incremental block-level backup copies116 at a certain time every day for database files in a certaingeographical location). Thus, jobs agent 156 may access informationmanagement policies 148 (e.g., in management database 146) to determinewhen, where, and how to initiate/control jobs in system 100.

Storage Manager User Interfaces

User interface 158 may include information processing and displaysoftware, such as a graphical user interface (GUI), an applicationprogram interface (API), and/or other interactive interface(s) throughwhich users and system processes can retrieve information about thestatus of information management operations or issue instructions tostorage manager 140 and other components. Via user interface 158, usersmay issue instructions to the components in system 100 regardingperformance of secondary copy and recovery operations. For example, auser may modify a schedule concerning the number of pending secondarycopy operations. As another example, a user may employ the GUI to viewthe status of pending secondary copy jobs or to monitor the status ofcertain components in system 100 (e.g., the amount of capacity left in astorage device). Storage manager 140 may track information that permitsit to select, designate, or otherwise identify content indices,deduplication databases, or similar databases or resources or data setswithin its information management cell (or another cell) to be searchedin response to certain queries. Such queries may be entered by the userby interacting with user interface 158.

Various embodiments of information management system 100 may beconfigured and/or designed to generate user interface data usable forrendering the various interactive user interfaces described. The userinterface data may be used by system 100 and/or by another system,device, and/or software program (for example, a browser program), torender the interactive user interfaces. The interactive user interfacesmay be displayed on, for example, electronic displays (including, forexample, touch-enabled displays), consoles, etc., whetherdirect-connected to storage manager 140 or communicatively coupledremotely, e.g., via an internet connection. The present disclosuredescribes various embodiments of interactive and dynamic userinterfaces, some of which may be generated by user interface agent 158,and which are the result of significant technological development. Theuser interfaces described herein may provide improved human-computerinteractions, allowing for significant cognitive and ergonomicefficiencies and advantages over previous systems, including reducedmental workloads, improved decision-making, and the like. User interface158 may operate in a single integrated view or console (not shown). Theconsole may support a reporting capability for generating a variety ofreports, which may be tailored to a particular aspect of informationmanagement.

User interfaces are not exclusive to storage manager 140 and in someembodiments a user may access information locally from a computingdevice component of system 100. For example, some information pertainingto installed data agents 142 and associated data streams may beavailable from client computing device 102. Likewise, some informationpertaining to media agents 144 and associated data streams may beavailable from secondary storage computing device 106.

Storage Manager Management Agent

Management agent 154 can provide storage manager 140 with the ability tocommunicate with other components within system 100 and/or with otherinformation management cells via network protocols and applicationprogramming interfaces (APIs) including, e.g., HTTP, HTTPS, FTP, REST,virtualization software APIs, cloud service provider APIs, and hostedservice provider APIs, without limitation. Management agent 154 alsoallows multiple information management cells to communicate with oneanother. For example, system 100 in some cases may be one informationmanagement cell in a network of multiple cells adjacent to one anotheror otherwise logically related, e.g., in a WAN or LAN. With thisarrangement, the cells may communicate with one another throughrespective management agents 154. Inter-cell communications andhierarchy is described in greater detail in e.g., U.S. Pat. No.7,343,453.

Information Management Cell

An “information management cell” (or “storage operation cell” or “cell”)may generally include a logical and/or physical grouping of acombination of hardware and software components associated withperforming information management operations on electronic data,typically one storage manager 140 and at least one data agent 142(executing on a client computing device 102) and at least one mediaagent 144 (executing on a secondary storage computing device 106). Forinstance, the components shown in FIG. 1C may together form aninformation management cell. Thus, in some configurations, a system 100may be referred to as an information management cell or a storageoperation cell. A given cell may be identified by the identity of itsstorage manager 140, which is generally responsible for managing thecell.

Multiple cells may be organized hierarchically, so that cells mayinherit properties from hierarchically superior cells or be controlledby other cells in the hierarchy (automatically or otherwise).Alternatively, in some embodiments, cells may inherit or otherwise beassociated with information management policies, preferences,information management operational parameters, or other properties orcharacteristics according to their relative position in a hierarchy ofcells. Cells may also be organized hierarchically according to function,geography, architectural considerations, or other factors useful ordesirable in performing information management operations. For example,a first cell may represent a geographic segment of an enterprise, suchas a Chicago office, and a second cell may represent a differentgeographic segment, such as a New York City office. Other cells mayrepresent departments within a particular office, e.g., human resources,finance, engineering, etc. Where delineated by function, a first cellmay perform one or more first types of information management operations(e.g., one or more first types of secondary copies at a certainfrequency), and a second cell may perform one or more second types ofinformation management operations (e.g., one or more second types ofsecondary copies at a different frequency and under different retentionrules). In general, the hierarchical information is maintained by one ormore storage managers 140 that manage the respective cells (e.g., incorresponding management database(s) 146).

Data Agents

A variety of different applications 110 can operate on a given clientcomputing device 102, including operating systems, file systems,database applications, e-mail applications, and virtual machines, justto name a few. And, as part of the process of creating and restoringsecondary copies 116, the client computing device 102 may be tasked withprocessing and preparing the primary data 112 generated by these variousapplications 110. Moreover, the nature of the processing/preparation candiffer across application types, e.g., due to inherent structural,state, and formatting differences among applications 110 and/or theoperating system of client computing device 102. Each data agent 142 istherefore advantageously configured in some embodiments to assist in theperformance of information management operations based on the type ofdata that is being protected at a client-specific and/orapplication-specific level.

Data agent 142 is a component of information system 100 and is generallydirected by storage manager 140 to participate in creating or restoringsecondary copies 116. Data agent 142 may be a software program (e.g., inthe form of a set of executable binary files) that executes on the sameclient computing device 102 as the associated application 110 that dataagent 142 is configured to protect. Data agent 142 is generallyresponsible for managing, initiating, or otherwise assisting in theperformance of information management operations in reference to itsassociated application(s) 110 and corresponding primary data 112 whichis generated/accessed by the particular application(s) 110. Forinstance, data agent 142 may take part in copying, archiving, migrating,and/or replicating of certain primary data 112 stored in the primarystorage device(s) 104. Data agent 142 may receive control informationfrom storage manager 140, such as commands to transfer copies of dataobjects and/or metadata to one or more media agents 144. Data agent 142also may compress, deduplicate, and encrypt certain primary data 112, aswell as capture application-related metadata before transmitting theprocessed data to media agent 144. Data agent 142 also may receiveinstructions from storage manager 140 to restore (or assist inrestoring) a secondary copy 116 from secondary storage device 108 toprimary storage 104, such that the restored data may be properlyaccessed by application 110 in a suitable format as though it wereprimary data 112.

Each data agent 142 may be specialized for a particular application 110.For instance, different individual data agents 142 may be designed tohandle Microsoft Exchange data, Lotus Notes data, Microsoft Windows filesystem data, Microsoft Active Directory Objects data, SQL Server data,SharePoint data, Oracle database data, SAP database data, virtualmachines and/or associated data, and other types of data. A file systemdata agent, for example, may handle data files and/or other file systeminformation. If a client computing device 102 has two or more types ofdata 112, a specialized data agent 142 may be used for each data type.For example, to backup, migrate, and/or restore all of the data on aMicrosoft Exchange server, the client computing device 102 may use: (1)a Microsoft Exchange Mailbox data agent 142 to back up the Exchangemailboxes; (2) a Microsoft Exchange Database data agent 142 to back upthe Exchange databases; (3) a Microsoft Exchange Public Folder dataagent 142 to back up the Exchange Public Folders; and (4) a MicrosoftWindows File System data agent 142 to back up the file system of clientcomputing device 102. In this example, these specialized data agents 142are treated as four separate data agents 142 even though they operate onthe same client computing device 102. Other examples may include archivemanagement data agents such as a migration archiver or a compliancearchiver, Quick Recovery® agents, and continuous data replicationagents. Application-specific data agents 142 can provide improvedperformance as compared to generic agents. For instance, becauseapplication-specific data agents 142 may only handle data for a singlesoftware application, the design, operation, and performance of the dataagent 142 can be streamlined. The data agent 142 may therefore executefaster and consume less persistent storage and/or operating memory thandata agents designed to generically accommodate multiple differentsoftware applications 110.

Each data agent 142 may be configured to access data and/or metadatastored in the primary storage device(s) 104 associated with data agent142 and its host client computing device 102, and process the dataappropriately. For example, during a secondary copy operation, dataagent 142 may arrange or assemble the data and metadata into one or morefiles having a certain format (e.g., a particular backup or archiveformat) before transferring the file(s) to a media agent 144 or othercomponent. The file(s) may include a list of files or other metadata. Insome embodiments, a data agent 142 may be distributed between clientcomputing device 102 and storage manager 140 (and any other intermediatecomponents) or may be deployed from a remote location or its functionsapproximated by a remote process that performs some or all of thefunctions of data agent 142. In addition, a data agent 142 may performsome functions provided by media agent 144. Other embodiments may employone or more generic data agents 142 that can handle and process datafrom two or more different applications 110, or that can handle andprocess multiple data types, instead of or in addition to usingspecialized data agents 142. For example, one generic data agent 142 maybe used to back up, migrate and restore Microsoft Exchange Mailbox dataand Microsoft Exchange Database data, while another generic data agentmay handle Microsoft Exchange Public Folder data and Microsoft WindowsFile System data.

Media Agents

As noted, off-loading certain responsibilities from client computingdevices 102 to intermediate components such as secondary storagecomputing device(s) 106 and corresponding media agent(s) 144 can providea number of benefits including improved performance of client computingdevice 102, faster and more reliable information management operations,and enhanced scalability. In one example which will be discussed furtherbelow, media agent 144 can act as a local cache of recently-copied dataand/or metadata stored to secondary storage device(s) 108, thusimproving restore capabilities and performance for the cached data.

Media agent 144 is a component of system 100 and is generally directedby storage manager 140 in creating and restoring secondary copies 116.Whereas storage manager 140 generally manages system 100 as a whole,media agent 144 provides a portal to certain secondary storage devices108, such as by having specialized features for communicating with andaccessing certain associated secondary storage device 108. Media agent144 may be a software program (e.g., in the form of a set of executablebinary files) that executes on a secondary storage computing device 106.Media agent 144 generally manages, coordinates, and facilitates thetransmission of data between a data agent 142 (executing on clientcomputing device 102) and secondary storage device(s) 108 associatedwith media agent 144. For instance, other components in the system mayinteract with media agent 144 to gain access to data stored onassociated secondary storage device(s) 108, (e.g., to browse, read,write, modify, delete, or restore data). Moreover, media agents 144 cangenerate and store information relating to characteristics of the storeddata and/or metadata, or can generate and store other types ofinformation that generally provides insight into the contents of thesecondary storage devices 108—generally referred to as indexing of thestored secondary copies 116. Each media agent 144 may operate on adedicated secondary storage computing device 106, while in otherembodiments a plurality of media agents 144 may operate on the samesecondary storage computing device 106.

A media agent 144 may be associated with a particular secondary storagedevice 108 if that media agent 144 is capable of one or more of: routingand/or storing data to the particular secondary storage device 108;coordinating the routing and/or storing of data to the particularsecondary storage device 108; retrieving data from the particularsecondary storage device 108; coordinating the retrieval of data fromthe particular secondary storage device 108; and modifying and/ordeleting data retrieved from the particular secondary storage device108. Media agent 144 in certain embodiments is physically separate fromthe associated secondary storage device 108. For instance, a media agent144 may operate on a secondary storage computing device 106 in adistinct housing, package, and/or location from the associated secondarystorage device 108. In one example, a media agent 144 operates on afirst server computer and is in communication with a secondary storagedevice(s) 108 operating in a separate rack-mounted RAID-based system.

A media agent 144 associated with a particular secondary storage device108 may instruct secondary storage device 108 to perform an informationmanagement task. For instance, a media agent 144 may instruct a tapelibrary to use a robotic arm or other retrieval means to load or eject acertain storage media, and to subsequently archive, migrate, or retrievedata to or from that media, e.g., for the purpose of restoring data to aclient computing device 102. As another example, a secondary storagedevice 108 may include an array of hard disk drives or solid statedrives organized in a RAID configuration, and media agent 144 mayforward a logical unit number (LUN) and other appropriate information tothe array, which uses the received information to execute the desiredsecondary copy operation. Media agent 144 may communicate with asecondary storage device 108 via a suitable communications link, such asa SCSI or Fibre Channel link.

Each media agent 144 may maintain an associated media agent database152. Media agent database 152 may be stored to a disk or other storagedevice (not shown) that is local to the secondary storage computingdevice 106 on which media agent 144 executes. In other cases, mediaagent database 152 is stored separately from the host secondary storagecomputing device 106. Media agent database 152 can include, among otherthings, a media agent index 153 (see, e.g., FIG. 1C). In some cases,media agent index 153 does not form a part of and is instead separatefrom media agent database 152.

Media agent index 153 (or “index 153”) may be a data structureassociated with the particular media agent 144 that includes informationabout the stored data associated with the particular media agent andwhich may be generated in the course of performing a secondary copyoperation or a restore. Index 153 provides a fast and efficientmechanism for locating/browsing secondary copies 116 or other datastored in secondary storage devices 108 without having to accesssecondary storage device 108 to retrieve the information from there. Forinstance, for each secondary copy 116, index 153 may include metadatasuch as a list of the data objects (e.g., files/subdirectories, databaseobjects, mailbox objects, etc.), a logical path to the secondary copy116 on the corresponding secondary storage device 108, locationinformation (e.g., offsets) indicating where the data objects are storedin the secondary storage device 108, when the data objects were createdor modified, etc. Thus, index 153 includes metadata associated with thesecondary copies 116 that is readily available for use from media agent144. In some embodiments, some or all of the information in index 153may instead or additionally be stored along with secondary copies 116 insecondary storage device 108. In some embodiments, a secondary storagedevice 108 can include sufficient information to enable a “bare metalrestore,” where the operating system and/or software applications of afailed client computing device 102 or another target may beautomatically restored without manually reinstalling individual softwarepackages (including operating systems).

Because index 153 may operate as a cache, it can also be referred to asan “index cache.” In such cases, information stored in index cache 153typically comprises data that reflects certain particulars aboutrelatively recent secondary copy operations. After some triggeringevent, such as after some time elapses or index cache 153 reaches aparticular size, certain portions of index cache 153 may be copied ormigrated to secondary storage device 108, e.g., on a least-recently-usedbasis. This information may be retrieved and uploaded back into indexcache 153 or otherwise restored to media agent 144 to facilitateretrieval of data from the secondary storage device(s) 108. In someembodiments, the cached information may include format orcontainerization information related to archives or other files storedon storage device(s) 108.

In some alternative embodiments media agent 144 generally acts as acoordinator or facilitator of secondary copy operations between clientcomputing devices 102 and secondary storage devices 108, but does notactually write the data to secondary storage device 108. For instance,storage manager 140 (or media agent 144) may instruct a client computingdevice 102 and secondary storage device 108 to communicate with oneanother directly. In such a case, client computing device 102 transmitsdata directly or via one or more intermediary components to secondarystorage device 108 according to the received instructions, and viceversa. Media agent 144 may still receive, process, and/or maintainmetadata related to the secondary copy operations, i.e., may continue tobuild and maintain index 153. In these embodiments, payload data canflow through media agent 144 for the purposes of populating index 153,but not for writing to secondary storage device 108. Media agent 144and/or other components such as storage manager 140 may in some casesincorporate additional functionality, such as data classification,content indexing, deduplication, encryption, compression, and the like.Further details regarding these and other functions are described below.

Distributed, Scalable Architecture

As described, certain functions of system 100 can be distributed amongstvarious physical and/or logical components. For instance, one or more ofstorage manager 140, data agents 142, and media agents 144 may operateon computing devices that are physically separate from one another. Thisarchitecture can provide a number of benefits. For instance, hardwareand software design choices for each distributed component can betargeted to suit its particular function. The secondary computingdevices 106 on which media agents 144 operate can be tailored forinteraction with associated secondary storage devices 108 and providefast index cache operation, among other specific tasks. Similarly,client computing device(s) 102 can be selected to effectively serviceapplications 110 in order to efficiently produce and store primary data112.

Moreover, in some cases, one or more of the individual components ofinformation management system 100 can be distributed to multipleseparate computing devices. As one example, for large file systems wherethe amount of data stored in management database 146 is relativelylarge, database 146 may be migrated to or may otherwise reside on aspecialized database server (e.g., an SQL server) separate from a serverthat implements the other functions of storage manager 140. Thisdistributed configuration can provide added protection because database146 can be protected with standard database utilities (e.g., SQL logshipping or database replication) independent from other functions ofstorage manager 140. Database 146 can be efficiently replicated to aremote site for use in the event of a disaster or other data loss at theprimary site. Or database 146 can be replicated to another computingdevice within the same site, such as to a higher performance machine inthe event that a storage manager host computing device can no longerservice the needs of a growing system 100.

The distributed architecture also provides scalability and efficientcomponent utilization. FIG. 1D shows an embodiment of informationmanagement system 100 including a plurality of client computing devices102 and associated data agents 142 as well as a plurality of secondarystorage computing devices 106 and associated media agents 144.Additional components can be added or subtracted based on the evolvingneeds of system 100. For instance, depending on where bottlenecks areidentified, administrators can add additional client computing devices102, secondary storage computing devices 106, and/or secondary storagedevices 108. Moreover, where multiple fungible components are available,load balancing can be implemented to dynamically address identifiedbottlenecks. As an example, storage manager 140 may dynamically selectwhich media agents 144 and/or secondary storage devices 108 to use forstorage operations based on a processing load analysis of media agents144 and/or secondary storage devices 108, respectively.

Where system 100 includes multiple media agents 144 (see, e.g., FIG.1D), a first media agent 144 may provide failover functionality for asecond failed media agent 144. In addition, media agents 144 can bedynamically selected to provide load balancing. Each client computingdevice 102 can communicate with, among other components, any of themedia agents 144, e.g., as directed by storage manager 140. And eachmedia agent 144 may communicate with, among other components, any ofsecondary storage devices 108, e.g., as directed by storage manager 140.Thus, operations can be routed to secondary storage devices 108 in adynamic and highly flexible manner, to provide load balancing, failover,etc. Further examples of scalable systems capable of dynamic storageoperations, load balancing, and failover are provided in U.S. Pat. No.7,246,207.

While distributing functionality amongst multiple computing devices canhave certain advantages, in other contexts it can be beneficial toconsolidate functionality on the same computing device. In alternativeconfigurations, certain components may reside and execute on the samecomputing device. As such, in other embodiments, one or more of thecomponents shown in FIG. 1C may be implemented on the same computingdevice. In one configuration, a storage manager 140, one or more dataagents 142, and/or one or more media agents 144 are all implemented onthe same computing device. In other embodiments, one or more data agents142 and one or more media agents 144 are implemented on the samecomputing device, while storage manager 140 is implemented on a separatecomputing device, etc. without limitation.

Exemplary Types of Information Management Operations, Including StorageOperations

In order to protect and leverage stored data, system 100 can beconfigured to perform a variety of information management operations,which may also be referred to in some cases as storage managementoperations or storage operations. These operations can generally include(i) data movement operations, (ii) processing and data manipulationoperations, and (iii) analysis, reporting, and management operations.

Data Movement Operations, Including Secondary Copy Operations

Data movement operations are generally storage operations that involvethe copying or migration of data between different locations in system100. For example, data movement operations can include operations inwhich stored data is copied, migrated, or otherwise transferred from oneor more first storage devices to one or more second storage devices,such as from primary storage device(s) 104 to secondary storagedevice(s) 108, from secondary storage device(s) 108 to differentsecondary storage device(s) 108, from secondary storage devices 108 toprimary storage devices 104, or from primary storage device(s) 104 todifferent primary storage device(s) 104, or in some cases within thesame primary storage device 104 such as within a storage array.

Data movement operations can include by way of example, backupoperations, archive operations, information lifecycle managementoperations such as hierarchical storage management operations,replication operations (e.g., continuous data replication), snapshotoperations, deduplication or single-instancing operations, auxiliarycopy operations, disaster-recovery copy operations, and the like. Aswill be discussed, some of these operations do not necessarily createdistinct copies. Nonetheless, some or all of these operations aregenerally referred to as “secondary copy operations” for simplicity,because they involve secondary copies. Data movement also comprisesrestoring secondary copies.

Backup Operations

A backup operation creates a copy of a version of primary data 112 at aparticular point in time (e.g., one or more files or other data units).Each subsequent backup copy 116 (which is a form of secondary copy 116)may be maintained independently of the first. A backup generallyinvolves maintaining a version of the copied primary data 112 as well asbackup copies 116. Further, a backup copy in some embodiments isgenerally stored in a form that is different from the native format,e.g., a backup format. This contrasts to the version in primary data 112which may instead be stored in a format native to the sourceapplication(s) 110. In various cases, backup copies can be stored in aformat in which the data is compressed, encrypted, deduplicated, and/orotherwise modified from the original native application format. Forexample, a backup copy may be stored in a compressed backup format thatfacilitates efficient long-term storage. Backup copies 116 can haverelatively long retention periods as compared to primary data 112, whichis generally highly changeable. Backup copies 116 may be stored on mediawith slower retrieval times than primary storage device 104. Some backupcopies may have shorter retention periods than some other types ofsecondary copies 116, such as archive copies (described below). Backupsmay be stored at an offsite location.

Backup operations can include full backups, differential backups,incremental backups, “synthetic full” backups, and/or creating a“reference copy.” A full backup (or “standard full backup”) in someembodiments is generally a complete image of the data to be protected.However, because full backup copies can consume a relatively largeamount of storage, it can be useful to use a full backup copy as abaseline and only store changes relative to the full backup copyafterwards.

A differential backup operation (or cumulative incremental backupoperation) tracks and stores changes that occurred since the last fullbackup. Differential backups can grow quickly in size, but can restorerelatively efficiently because a restore can be completed in some casesusing only the full backup copy and the latest differential copy.

An incremental backup operation generally tracks and stores changessince the most recent backup copy of any type, which can greatly reducestorage utilization. In some cases, however, restoring can be lengthycompared to full or differential backups because completing a restoreoperation may involve accessing a full backup in addition to multipleincremental backups.

Synthetic full backups generally consolidate data without directlybacking up data from the client computing device. A synthetic fullbackup is created from the most recent full backup (i.e., standard orsynthetic) and subsequent incremental and/or differential backups. Theresulting synthetic full backup is identical to what would have beencreated had the last backup for the subclient been a standard fullbackup. Unlike standard full, incremental, and differential backups,however, a synthetic full backup does not actually transfer data fromprimary storage to the backup media, because it operates as a backupconsolidator. A synthetic full backup extracts the index data of eachparticipating subclient. Using this index data and the previously backedup user data images, it builds new full backup images (e.g., bitmaps),one for each subclient. The new backup images consolidate the index anduser data stored in the related incremental, differential, and previousfull backups into a synthetic backup file that fully represents thesubclient (e.g., via pointers) but does not comprise all its constituentdata.

Any of the above types of backup operations can be at the volume level,file level, or block level. Volume level backup operations generallyinvolve copying of a data volume (e.g., a logical disk or partition) asa whole. In a file-level backup, information management system 100generally tracks changes to individual files and includes copies offiles in the backup copy. For block-level backups, files are broken intoconstituent blocks, and changes are tracked at the block level. Uponrestore, system 100 reassembles the blocks into files in a transparentfashion. Far less data may actually be transferred and copied tosecondary storage devices 108 during a file-level copy than avolume-level copy. Likewise, a block-level copy may transfer less datathan a file-level copy, resulting in faster execution. However,restoring a relatively higher-granularity copy can result in longerrestore times. For instance, when restoring a block-level copy, theprocess of locating and retrieving constituent blocks can sometimes takelonger than restoring file-level backups.

A reference copy may comprise copy(ies) of selected objects from backedup data, typically to help organize data by keeping contextualinformation from multiple sources together, and/or help retain specificdata for a longer period of time, such as for legal hold needs. Areference copy generally maintains data integrity, and when the data isrestored, it may be viewed in the same format as the source data. Insome embodiments, a reference copy is based on a specialized client,individual subclient and associated information management policies(e.g., storage policy, retention policy, etc.) that are administeredwithin system 100.

Archive Operations

Because backup operations generally involve maintaining a version of thecopied primary data 112 and also maintaining backup copies in secondarystorage device(s) 108, they can consume significant storage capacity. Toreduce storage consumption, an archive operation according to certainembodiments creates an archive copy 116 by both copying and removingsource data. Or, seen another way, archive operations can involve movingsome or all of the source data to the archive destination. Thus, datasatisfying criteria for removal (e.g., data of a threshold age or size)may be removed from source storage. The source data may be primary data112 or a secondary copy 116, depending on the situation. As with backupcopies, archive copies can be stored in a format in which the data iscompressed, encrypted, deduplicated, and/or otherwise modified from theformat of the original application or source copy. In addition, archivecopies may be retained for relatively long periods of time (e.g., years)and, in some cases are never deleted. In certain embodiments, archivecopies may be made and kept for extended periods in order to meetcompliance regulations.

Archiving can also serve the purpose of freeing up space in primarystorage device(s) 104 and easing the demand on computational resourceson client computing device 102. Similarly, when a secondary copy 116 isarchived, the archive copy can therefore serve the purpose of freeing upspace in the source secondary storage device(s) 108. Examples of dataarchiving operations are provided in U.S. Pat. No. 7,107,298.

Snapshot Operations

Snapshot operations can provide a relatively lightweight, efficientmechanism for protecting data. From an end-user viewpoint, a snapshotmay be thought of as an “instant” image of primary data 112 at a givenpoint in time, and may include state and/or status information relativeto an application 110 that creates/manages primary data 112. In oneembodiment, a snapshot may generally capture the directory structure ofan object in primary data 112 such as a file or volume or other data setat a particular moment in time and may also preserve file attributes andcontents. A snapshot in some cases is created relatively quickly, e.g.,substantially instantly, using a minimum amount of file space, but maystill function as a conventional file system backup.

A “hardware snapshot” (or “hardware-based snapshot”) operation occurswhere a target storage device (e.g., a primary storage device 104 or asecondary storage device 108) performs the snapshot operation in aself-contained fashion, substantially independently, using hardware,firmware and/or software operating on the storage device itself. Forinstance, the storage device may perform snapshot operations generallywithout intervention or oversight from any of the other components ofthe system 100, e.g., a storage array may generate an “array-created”hardware snapshot and may also manage its storage, integrity,versioning, etc. In this manner, hardware snapshots can off-load othercomponents of system 100 from snapshot processing. An array may receivea request from another component to take a snapshot and then proceed toexecute the “hardware snapshot” operations autonomously, preferablyreporting success to the requesting component.

A “software snapshot” (or “software-based snapshot”) operation, on theother hand, occurs where a component in system 100 (e.g., clientcomputing device 102, etc.) implements a software layer that manages thesnapshot operation via interaction with the target storage device. Forinstance, the component executing the snapshot management software layermay derive a set of pointers and/or data that represents the snapshot.The snapshot management software layer may then transmit the same to thetarget storage device, along with appropriate instructions for writingthe snapshot. One example of a software snapshot product is MicrosoftVolume Snapshot Service (VSS), which is part of the Microsoft Windowsoperating system.

Some types of snapshots do not actually create another physical copy ofall the data as it existed at the particular point in time, but maysimply create pointers that map files and directories to specific memorylocations (e.g., to specific disk blocks) where the data resides as itexisted at the particular point in time. For example, a snapshot copymay include a set of pointers derived from the file system or from anapplication. In some other cases, the snapshot may be created at theblock-level, such that creation of the snapshot occurs without awarenessof the file system. Each pointer points to a respective stored datablock, so that collectively, the set of pointers reflect the storagelocation and state of the data object (e.g., file(s) or volume(s) ordata set(s)) at the point in time when the snapshot copy was created.

An initial snapshot may use only a small amount of disk space needed torecord a mapping or other data structure representing or otherwisetracking the blocks that correspond to the current state of the filesystem. Additional disk space is usually required only when files anddirectories change later on. Furthermore, when files change, typicallyonly the pointers which map to blocks are copied, not the blocksthemselves. For example for “copy-on-write” snapshots, when a blockchanges in primary storage, the block is copied to secondary storage orcached in primary storage before the block is overwritten in primarystorage, and the pointer to that block is changed to reflect the newlocation of that block. The snapshot mapping of file system data mayalso be updated to reflect the changed block(s) at that particular pointin time. In some other cases, a snapshot includes a full physical copyof all or substantially all of the data represented by the snapshot.Further examples of snapshot operations are provided in U.S. Pat. No.7,529,782. A snapshot copy in many cases can be made quickly and withoutsignificantly impacting primary computing resources because largeamounts of data need not be copied or moved. In some embodiments, asnapshot may exist as a virtual file system, parallel to the actual filesystem. Users in some cases gain read-only access to the record of filesand directories of the snapshot. By electing to restore primary data 112from a snapshot taken at a given point in time, users may also returnthe current file system to the state of the file system that existedwhen the snapshot was taken.

Replication Operations

Replication is another type of secondary copy operation. Some types ofsecondary copies 116 periodically capture images of primary data 112 atparticular points in time (e.g., backups, archives, and snapshots).However, it can also be useful for recovery purposes to protect primarydata 112 in a more continuous fashion, by replicating primary data 112substantially as changes occur. In some cases a replication copy can bea mirror copy, for instance, where changes made to primary data 112 aremirrored or substantially immediately copied to another location (e.g.,to secondary storage device(s) 108). By copying each write operation tothe replication copy, two storage systems are kept synchronized orsubstantially synchronized so that they are virtually identical atapproximately the same time. Where entire disk volumes are mirrored,however, mirroring can require significant amount of storage space andutilizes a large amount of processing resources.

According to some embodiments, secondary copy operations are performedon replicated data that represents a recoverable state, or “known goodstate” of a particular application running on the source system. Forinstance, in certain embodiments, known good replication copies may beviewed as copies of primary data 112. This feature allows the system todirectly access, copy, restore, back up, or otherwise manipulate thereplication copies as if they were the “live” primary data 112. This canreduce access time, storage utilization, and impact on sourceapplications 110, among other benefits. Based on known good stateinformation, system 100 can replicate sections of application data thatrepresent a recoverable state rather than rote copying of blocks ofdata. Examples of replication operations (e.g., continuous datareplication) are provided in U.S. Pat. No. 7,617,262.

Deduplication/Single-Instancing Operations

Deduplication or single-instance storage is useful to reduce the amountof non-primary data. For instance, some or all of the above-describedsecondary copy operations can involve deduplication in some fashion. Newdata is read, broken down into data portions of a selected granularity(e.g., sub-file level blocks, files, etc.), compared with correspondingportions that are already in secondary storage, and only new/changedportions are stored. Portions that already exist are represented aspointers to the already-stored data. Thus, a deduplicated secondary copy116 may comprise actual data portions copied from primary data 112 andmay further comprise pointers to already-stored data, which is generallymore storage-efficient than a full copy.

In order to streamline the comparison process, system 100 may calculateand/or store signatures (e.g., hashes or cryptographically unique IDs)corresponding to the individual source data portions and compare thesignatures to already-stored data signatures, instead of comparingentire data portions. In some cases, only a single instance of each dataportion is stored, and deduplication operations may therefore bereferred to interchangeably as “single-instancing” operations. Dependingon the implementation, however, deduplication operations can store morethan one instance of certain data portions, yet still significantlyreduce stored-data redundancy. Depending on the embodiment,deduplication portions such as data blocks can be of fixed or variablelength. Using variable length blocks can enhance deduplication byresponding to changes in the data stream, but can involve more complexprocessing. In some cases, system 100 utilizes a technique fordynamically aligning deduplication blocks based on changing content inthe data stream, as described in U.S. Pat. No. 8,364,652.

System 100 can deduplicate in a variety of manners at a variety oflocations. For instance, in some embodiments, system 100 implements“target-side” deduplication by deduplicating data at the media agent 144after being received from data agent 142. In some such cases, mediaagents 144 are generally configured to manage the deduplication process.For instance, one or more of the media agents 144 maintain acorresponding deduplication database that stores deduplicationinformation (e.g., data block signatures). Examples of such aconfiguration are provided in U.S. Pat. No. 9,020,900. Instead of or incombination with “target-side” deduplication, “source-side” (or“client-side”) deduplication can also be performed, e.g., to reduce theamount of data to be transmitted by data agent 142 to media agent 144.Storage manager 140 may communicate with other components within system100 via network protocols and cloud service provider APIs to facilitatecloud-based deduplication/single instancing, as exemplified in U.S. Pat.No. 8,954,446. Some other deduplication/single instancing techniques aredescribed in U.S. Pat. Pub. No. 2006/0224846 and in U.S. Pat. 9,098,495.

Information Lifecycle Management and Hierarchical Storage Management

In some embodiments, files and other data over their lifetime move frommore expensive quick-access storage to less expensive slower-accessstorage. Operations associated with moving data through various tiers ofstorage are sometimes referred to as information lifecycle management(ILM) operations.

One type of ILM operation is a hierarchical storage management (HSM)operation, which generally automatically moves data between classes ofstorage devices, such as from high-cost to low-cost storage devices. Forinstance, an HSM operation may involve movement of data from primarystorage devices 104 to secondary storage devices 108, or between tiersof secondary storage devices 108. With each tier, the storage devicesmay be progressively cheaper, have relatively slower access/restoretimes, etc. For example, movement of data between tiers may occur asdata becomes less important over time. In some embodiments, an HSMoperation is similar to archiving in that creating an HSM copy may(though not always) involve deleting some of the source data, e.g.,according to one or more criteria related to the source data. Forexample, an HSM copy may include primary data 112 or a secondary copy116 that exceeds a given size threshold or a given age threshold. Often,and unlike some types of archive copies, HSM data that is removed oraged from the source is replaced by a logical reference pointer or stub.The reference pointer or stub can be stored in the primary storagedevice 104 or other source storage device, such as a secondary storagedevice 108 to replace the deleted source data and to point to orotherwise indicate the new location in (another) secondary storagedevice 108.

For example, files are generally moved between higher and lower coststorage depending on how often the files are accessed. When a userrequests access to HSM data that has been removed or migrated, system100 uses the stub to locate the data and can make recovery of the dataappear transparent, even though the HSM data may be stored at a locationdifferent from other source data. In this manner, the data appears tothe user (e.g., in file system browsing windows and the like) as if itstill resides in the source location (e.g., in a primary storage device104). The stub may include metadata associated with the correspondingdata, so that a file system and/or application can provide someinformation about the data object and/or a limited-functionality version(e.g., a preview) of the data object.

An HSM copy may be stored in a format other than the native applicationformat (e.g., compressed, encrypted, deduplicated, and/or otherwisemodified). In some cases, copies which involve the removal of data fromsource storage and the maintenance of stub or other logical referenceinformation on source storage may be referred to generally as “on-linearchive copies.” On the other hand, copies which involve the removal ofdata from source storage without the maintenance of stub or otherlogical reference information on source storage may be referred to as“off-line archive copies.” Examples of HSM and ILM techniques areprovided in U.S. Pat. No. 7,343,453.

Auxiliary Copy Operations

An auxiliary copy is generally a copy of an existing secondary copy 116.For instance, an initial secondary copy 116 may be derived from primarydata 112 or from data residing in secondary storage subsystem 118,whereas an auxiliary copy is generated from the initial secondary copy116. Auxiliary copies provide additional standby copies of data and mayreside on different secondary storage devices 108 than the initialsecondary copies 116. Thus, auxiliary copies can be used for recoverypurposes if initial secondary copies 116 become unavailable. Exemplaryauxiliary copy techniques are described in further detail in U.S. Pat.No. 8,230,195.

Disaster-Recovery Copy Operations

System 100 may also make and retain disaster recovery copies, often assecondary, high-availability disk copies. System 100 may createsecondary copies and store them at disaster recovery locations usingauxiliary copy or replication operations, such as continuous datareplication technologies. Depending on the particular data protectiongoals, disaster recovery locations can be remote from the clientcomputing devices 102 and primary storage devices 104, remote from someor all of the secondary storage devices 108, or both.

Data Manipulation, Including Encryption and Compression

Data manipulation and processing may include encryption and compressionas well as integrity marking and checking, formatting for transmission,formatting for storage, etc. Data may be manipulated “client-side” bydata agent 142 as well as “target-side” by media agent 144 in the courseof creating secondary copy 116, or conversely in the course of restoringdata from secondary to primary.

Encryption Operations

System 100 in some cases is configured to process data (e.g., files orother data objects, primary data 112, secondary copies 116, etc.),according to an appropriate encryption algorithm (e.g., Blowfish,Advanced Encryption Standard (AES), Triple Data Encryption Standard(3-DES), etc.) to limit access and provide data security. System 100 insome cases encrypts the data at the client level, such that clientcomputing devices 102 (e.g., data agents 142) encrypt the data prior totransferring it to other components, e.g., before sending the data tomedia agents 144 during a secondary copy operation. In such cases,client computing device 102 may maintain or have access to an encryptionkey or passphrase for decrypting the data upon restore. Encryption canalso occur when media agent 144 creates auxiliary copies or archivecopies. Encryption may be applied in creating a secondary copy 116 of apreviously unencrypted secondary copy 116, without limitation. Infurther embodiments, secondary storage devices 108 can implementbuilt-in, high performance hardware-based encryption.

Compression Operations

Similar to encryption, system 100 may also or alternatively compressdata in the course of generating a secondary copy 116. Compressionencodes information such that fewer bits are needed to represent theinformation as compared to the original representation. Compressiontechniques are well known in the art. Compression operations may applyone or more data compression algorithms. Compression may be applied increating a secondary copy 116 of a previously uncompressed secondarycopy, e.g., when making archive copies or disaster recovery copies. Theuse of compression may result in metadata that specifies the nature ofthe compression, so that data may be uncompressed on restore ifappropriate.

Data Analysis, Reporting, and Management Operations

Data analysis, reporting, and management operations can differ from datamovement operations in that they do not necessarily involve copying,migration or other transfer of data between different locations in thesystem. For instance, data analysis operations may involve processing(e.g., offline processing) or modification of already stored primarydata 112 and/or secondary copies 116. However, in some embodiments dataanalysis operations are performed in conjunction with data movementoperations. Some data analysis operations include content indexingoperations and classification operations which can be useful inleveraging data under management to enhance search and other features.

Classification Operations/Content Indexing

In some embodiments, information management system 100 analyzes andindexes characteristics, content, and metadata associated with primarydata 112 (“online content indexing”) and/or secondary copies 116(“off-line content indexing”). Content indexing can identify files orother data objects based on content (e.g., user-defined keywords orphrases, other keywords/phrases that are not defined by a user, etc.),and/or metadata (e.g., email metadata such as “to,” “from,” “cc,” “bcc,”attachment name, received time, etc.). Content indexes may be searchedand search results may be restored.

System 100 generally organizes and catalogues the results into a contentindex, which may be stored within media agent database 152, for example.The content index can also include the storage locations of or pointerreferences to indexed data in primary data 112 and/or secondary copies116. Results may also be stored elsewhere in system 100 (e.g., inprimary storage device 104 or in secondary storage device 108). Suchcontent index data provides storage manager 140 or other components withan efficient mechanism for locating primary data 112 and/or secondarycopies 116 of data objects that match particular criteria, thus greatlyincreasing the search speed capability of system 100. For instance,search criteria can be specified by a user through user interface 158 ofstorage manager 140. Moreover, when system 100 analyzes data and/ormetadata in secondary copies 116 to create an “off-line content index,”this operation has no significant impact on the performance of clientcomputing devices 102 and thus does not take a toll on the productionenvironment. Examples of content indexing techniques are provided inU.S. Pat. No. 8,170,995.

One or more components, such as a content index engine, can beconfigured to scan data and/or associated metadata for classificationpurposes to populate a database (or other data structure) ofinformation, which can be referred to as a “data classificationdatabase” or a “metabase.” Depending on the embodiment, the dataclassification database(s) can be organized in a variety of differentways, including centralization, logical sub-divisions, and/or physicalsub-divisions. For instance, one or more data classification databasesmay be associated with different subsystems or tiers within system 100.As an example, there may be a first metabase associated with primarystorage subsystem 117 and a second metabase associated with secondarystorage subsystem 118. In other cases, metabase(s) may be associatedwith individual components, e.g., client computing devices 102 and/ormedia agents 144. In some embodiments, a data classification databasemay reside as one or more data structures within management database146, may be otherwise associated with storage manager 140, and/or mayreside as a separate component. In some cases, metabase(s) may beincluded in separate database(s) and/or on separate storage device(s)from primary data 112 and/or secondary copies 116, such that operationsrelated to the metabase(s) do not significantly impact performance onother components of system 100. In other cases, metabase(s) may bestored along with primary data 112 and/or secondary copies 116. Files orother data objects can be associated with identifiers (e.g., tagentries, etc.) to facilitate searches of stored data objects. Among anumber of other benefits, the metabase can also allow efficient,automatic identification of files or other data objects to associatewith secondary copy or other information management operations. Forinstance, a metabase can dramatically improve the speed with whichsystem 100 can search through and identify data as compared to otherapproaches that involve scanning an entire file system. Examples ofmetabases and data classification operations are provided in U.S. Pat.Nos. 7,734,669 and 7,747,579.

Management and Reporting Operations

Certain embodiments leverage the integrated ubiquitous nature of system100 to provide useful system-wide management and reporting. Operationsmanagement can generally include monitoring and managing the health andperformance of system 100 by, without limitation, performing errortracking, generating granular storage/performance metrics (e.g., jobsuccess/failure information, deduplication efficiency, etc.), generatingstorage modeling and costing information, and the like. As an example,storage manager 140 or another component in system 100 may analyzetraffic patterns and suggest and/or automatically route data to minimizecongestion. In some embodiments, the system can generate predictionsrelating to storage operations or storage operation information. Suchpredictions, which may be based on a trending analysis, may predictvarious network operations or resource usage, such as network trafficlevels, storage media use, use of bandwidth of communication links, useof media agent components, etc. Further examples of traffic analysis,trend analysis, prediction generation, and the like are described inU.S. Pat. No. 7,343,453.

In some configurations having a hierarchy of storage operation cells, amaster storage manager 140 may track the status of subordinate cells,such as the status of jobs, system components, system resources, andother items, by communicating with storage managers 140 (or othercomponents) in the respective storage operation cells. Moreover, themaster storage manager 140 may also track status by receiving periodicstatus updates from the storage managers 140 (or other components) inthe respective cells regarding jobs, system components, systemresources, and other items. In some embodiments, a master storagemanager 140 may store status information and other information regardingits associated storage operation cells and other system information inits management database 146 and/or index 150 (or in another location).The master storage manager 140 or other component may also determinewhether certain storage-related or other criteria are satisfied, and mayperform an action or trigger event (e.g., data migration) in response tothe criteria being satisfied, such as where a storage threshold is metfor a particular volume, or where inadequate protection exists forcertain data. For instance, data from one or more storage operationcells is used to dynamically and automatically mitigate recognizedrisks, and/or to advise users of risks or suggest actions to mitigatethese risks. For example, an information management policy may specifycertain requirements (e.g., that a storage device should maintain acertain amount of free space, that secondary copies should occur at aparticular interval, that data should be aged and migrated to otherstorage after a particular period, that data on a secondary volumeshould always have a certain level of availability and be restorablewithin a given time period, that data on a secondary volume may bemirrored or otherwise migrated to a specified number of other volumes,etc.). If a risk condition or other criterion is triggered, the systemmay notify the user of these conditions and may suggest (orautomatically implement) a mitigation action to address the risk. Forexample, the system may indicate that data from a primary copy 112should be migrated to a secondary storage device 108 to free up space onprimary storage device 104. Examples of the use of risk factors andother triggering criteria are described in U.S. Pat. No. 7,343,453.

In some embodiments, system 100 may also determine whether a metric orother indication satisfies particular storage criteria sufficient toperform an action. For example, a storage policy or other definitionmight indicate that a storage manager 140 should initiate a particularaction if a storage metric or other indication drops below or otherwisefails to satisfy specified criteria such as a threshold of dataprotection. In some embodiments, risk factors may be quantified intocertain measurable service or risk levels. For example, certainapplications and associated data may be considered to be more importantrelative to other data and services. Financial compliance data, forexample, may be of greater importance than marketing materials, etc.Network administrators may assign priority values or “weights” tocertain data and/or applications corresponding to the relativeimportance. The level of compliance of secondary copy operationsspecified for these applications may also be assigned a certain value.Thus, the health, impact, and overall importance of a service may bedetermined, such as by measuring the compliance value and calculatingthe product of the priority value and the compliance value to determinethe “service level” and comparing it to certain operational thresholdsto determine whether it is acceptable. Further examples of the servicelevel determination are provided in U.S. Pat. No. 7,343,453.

System 100 may additionally calculate data costing and data availabilityassociated with information management operation cells. For instance,data received from a cell may be used in conjunction withhardware-related information and other information about system elementsto determine the cost of storage and/or the availability of particulardata. Exemplary information generated could include how fast aparticular department is using up available storage space, how long datawould take to recover over a particular pathway from a particularsecondary storage device, costs over time, etc. Moreover, in someembodiments, such information may be used to determine or predict theoverall cost associated with the storage of certain information. Thecost associated with hosting a certain application may be based, atleast in part, on the type of media on which the data resides, forexample. Storage devices may be assigned to a particular costcategories, for example. Further examples of costing techniques aredescribed in U.S. Pat. No. 7,343,453.

Any of the above types of information (e.g., information related totrending, predictions, job, cell or component status, risk, servicelevel, costing, etc.) can generally be provided to users via userinterface 158 in a single integrated view or console (not shown). Reporttypes may include: scheduling, event management, media management anddata aging. Available reports may also include backup history, dataaging history, auxiliary copy history, job history, library and drive,media in library, restore history, and storage policy, etc., withoutlimitation. Such reports may be specified and created at a certain pointin time as a system analysis, forecasting, or provisioning tool.Integrated reports may also be generated that illustrate storage andperformance metrics, risks and storage costing information. Moreover,users may create their own reports based on specific needs. Userinterface 158 can include an option to graphically depict the variouscomponents in the system using appropriate icons. As one example, userinterface 158 may provide a graphical depiction of primary storagedevices 104, secondary storage devices 108, data agents 142 and/or mediaagents 144, and their relationship to one another in system 100.

In general, the operations management functionality of system 100 canfacilitate planning and decision-making. For example, in someembodiments, a user may view the status of some or all jobs as well asthe status of each component of information management system 100. Usersmay then plan and make decisions based on this data. For instance, auser may view high-level information regarding secondary copy operationsfor system 100, such as job status, component status, resource status(e.g., communication pathways, etc.), and other information. The usermay also drill down or use other means to obtain more detailedinformation regarding a particular component, job, or the like. Furtherexamples are provided in U.S. Pat. No. 7,343,453.

System 100 can also be configured to perform system-wide e-discoveryoperations in some embodiments. In general, e-discovery operationsprovide a unified collection and search capability for data in thesystem, such as data stored in secondary storage devices 108 (e.g.,backups, archives, or other secondary copies 116). For example, system100 may construct and maintain a virtual repository for data stored insystem 100 that is integrated across source applications 110, differentstorage device types, etc. According to some embodiments, e-discoveryutilizes other techniques described herein, such as data classificationand/or content indexing.

Information Management Policies

An information management policy 148 can include a data structure orother information source that specifies a set of parameters (e.g.,criteria and rules) associated with secondary copy and/or otherinformation management operations.

One type of information management policy 148 is a “storage policy.”According to certain embodiments, a storage policy generally comprises adata structure or other information source that defines (or includesinformation sufficient to determine) a set of preferences or othercriteria for performing information management operations. Storagepolicies can include one or more of the following: (1) what data will beassociated with the storage policy, e.g., subclient; (2) a destinationto which the data will be stored; (3) datapath information specifyinghow the data will be communicated to the destination; (4) the type ofsecondary copy operation to be performed; and (5) retention informationspecifying how long the data will be retained at the destination (see,e.g., FIG. 1E). Data associated with a storage policy can be logicallyorganized into subclients, which may represent primary data 112 and/orsecondary copies 116. A subclient may represent static or dynamicassociations of portions of a data volume. Subclients may representmutually exclusive portions. Thus, in certain embodiments, a portion ofdata may be given a label and the association is stored as a staticentity in an index, database or other storage location. Subclients mayalso be used as an effective administrative scheme of organizing dataaccording to data type, department within the enterprise, storagepreferences, or the like. Depending on the configuration, subclients cancorrespond to files, folders, virtual machines, databases, etc. In oneexemplary scenario, an administrator may find it preferable to separatee-mail data from financial data using two different subclients.

A storage policy can define where data is stored by specifying a targetor destination storage device (or group of storage devices). Forinstance, where the secondary storage device 108 includes a group ofdisk libraries, the storage policy may specify a particular disk libraryfor storing the subclients associated with the policy. As anotherexample, where the secondary storage devices 108 include one or moretape libraries, the storage policy may specify a particular tape libraryfor storing the subclients associated with the storage policy, and mayalso specify a drive pool and a tape pool defining a group of tapedrives and a group of tapes, respectively, for use in storing thesubclient data. While information in the storage policy can bestatically assigned in some cases, some or all of the information in thestorage policy can also be dynamically determined based on criteria setforth in the storage policy. For instance, based on such criteria, aparticular destination storage device(s) or other parameter of thestorage policy may be determined based on characteristics associatedwith the data involved in a particular secondary copy operation, deviceavailability (e.g., availability of a secondary storage device 108 or amedia agent 144), network status and conditions (e.g., identifiedbottlenecks), user credentials, and the like.

Datapath information can also be included in the storage policy. Forinstance, the storage policy may specify network pathways and componentsto utilize when moving the data to the destination storage device(s). Insome embodiments, the storage policy specifies one or more media agents144 for conveying data associated with the storage policy between thesource and destination. A storage policy can also specify the type(s) ofassociated operations, such as backup, archive, snapshot, auxiliarycopy, or the like. Furthermore, retention parameters can specify howlong the resulting secondary copies 116 will be kept (e.g., a number ofdays, months, years, etc.), perhaps depending on organizational needsand/or compliance criteria.

When adding a new client computing device 102, administrators canmanually configure information management policies 148 and/or othersettings, e.g., via user interface 158. However, this can be an involvedprocess resulting in delays, and it may be desirable to begin dataprotection operations quickly, without awaiting human intervention.Thus, in some embodiments, system 100 automatically applies a defaultconfiguration to client computing device 102. As one example, when oneor more data agent(s) 142 are installed on a client computing device102, the installation script may register the client computing device102 with storage manager 140, which in turn applies the defaultconfiguration to the new client computing device 102. In this manner,data protection operations can begin substantially immediately. Thedefault configuration can include a default storage policy, for example,and can specify any appropriate information sufficient to begin dataprotection operations. This can include a type of data protectionoperation, scheduling information, a target secondary storage device108, data path information (e.g., a particular media agent 144), and thelike.

Another type of information management policy 148 is a “schedulingpolicy,” which specifies when and how often to perform operations.Scheduling parameters may specify with what frequency (e.g., hourly,weekly, daily, event-based, etc.) or under what triggering conditionssecondary copy or other information management operations are to takeplace. Scheduling policies in some cases are associated with particularcomponents, such as a subclient, client computing device 102, and thelike.

Another type of information management policy 148 is an “audit policy”(or “security policy”), which comprises preferences, rules and/orcriteria that protect sensitive data in system 100. For example, anaudit policy may define “sensitive objects” which are files or dataobjects that contain particular keywords (e.g., “confidential,” or“privileged”) and/or are associated with particular keywords (e.g., inmetadata) or particular flags (e.g., in metadata identifying a documentor email as personal, confidential, etc.). An audit policy may furtherspecify rules for handling sensitive objects. As an example, an auditpolicy may require that a reviewer approve the transfer of any sensitiveobjects to a cloud storage site, and that if approval is denied for aparticular sensitive object, the sensitive object should be transferredto a local primary storage device 104 instead. To facilitate thisapproval, the audit policy may further specify how a secondary storagecomputing device 106 or other system component should notify a reviewerthat a sensitive object is slated for transfer.

Another type of information management policy 148 is a “provisioningpolicy,” which can include preferences, priorities, rules, and/orcriteria that specify how client computing devices 102 (or groupsthereof) may utilize system resources, such as available storage oncloud storage and/or network bandwidth. A provisioning policy specifies,for example, data quotas for particular client computing devices 102(e.g., a number of gigabytes that can be stored monthly, quarterly orannually). Storage manager 140 or other components may enforce theprovisioning policy. For instance, media agents 144 may enforce thepolicy when transferring data to secondary storage devices 108. If aclient computing device 102 exceeds a quota, a budget for the clientcomputing device 102 (or associated department) may be adjustedaccordingly or an alert may trigger.

While the above types of information management policies 148 aredescribed as separate policies, one or more of these can be generallycombined into a single information management policy 148. For instance,a storage policy may also include or otherwise be associated with one ormore scheduling, audit, or provisioning policies or operationalparameters thereof. Moreover, while storage policies are typicallyassociated with moving and storing data, other policies may beassociated with other types of information management operations. Thefollowing is a non-exhaustive list of items that information managementpolicies 148 may specify:

-   -   schedules or other timing information, e.g., specifying when        and/or how often to perform information management operations;    -   the type of secondary copy 116 and/or copy format (e.g.,        snapshot, backup, archive, HSM, etc.);    -   a location or a class or quality of storage for storing        secondary copies 116 (e.g., one or more particular secondary        storage devices 108);    -   preferences regarding whether and how to encrypt, compress,        deduplicate, or otherwise modify or transform secondary copies        116;    -   which system components and/or network pathways (e.g., preferred        media agents 144) should be used to perform secondary storage        operations;    -   resource allocation among different computing devices or other        system components used in performing information management        operations (e.g., bandwidth allocation, available storage        capacity, etc.);    -   whether and how to synchronize or otherwise distribute files or        other data objects across multiple computing devices or hosted        services; and    -   retention information specifying the length of time primary data        112 and/or secondary copies 116 should be retained, e.g., in a        particular class or tier of storage devices, or within the        system 100.

Information management policies 148 can additionally specify or dependon historical or current criteria that may be used to determine whichrules to apply to a particular data object, system component, orinformation management operation, such as:

-   -   frequency with which primary data 112 or a secondary copy 116 of        a data object or metadata has been or is predicted to be used,        accessed, or modified;    -   time-related factors (e.g., aging information such as time since        the creation or modification of a data object);    -   deduplication information (e.g., hashes, data blocks,        deduplication block size, deduplication efficiency or other        metrics);    -   an estimated or historic usage or cost associated with different        components (e.g., with secondary storage devices 108);    -   the identity of users, applications 110, client computing        devices 102 and/or other computing devices that created,        accessed, modified, or otherwise utilized primary data 112 or        secondary copies 116;    -   a relative sensitivity (e.g., confidentiality, importance) of a        data object, e.g., as determined by its content and/or metadata;    -   the current or historical storage capacity of various storage        devices;    -   the current or historical network capacity of network pathways        connecting various components within the storage operation cell;    -   access control lists or other security information; and    -   the content of a particular data object (e.g., its textual        content) or of metadata associated with the data object.

Exemplary Storage Policy and Secondary Copy Operations

FIG. 1E includes a data flow diagram depicting performance of secondarycopy operations by an embodiment of information management system 100,according to an exemplary storage policy 148A. System 100 includes astorage manager 140, a client computing device 102 having a file systemdata agent 142A and an email data agent 142B operating thereon, aprimary storage device 104, two media agents 144A, 144B, and twosecondary storage devices 108: a disk library 108A and a tape library108B. As shown, primary storage device 104 includes primary data 112A,which is associated with a logical grouping of data associated with afile system (“file system subclient”), and primary data 112B, which is alogical grouping of data associated with email (“email subclient”). Thetechniques described with respect to FIG. 1 E can be utilized inconjunction with data that is otherwise organized as well.

As indicated by the dashed box, the second media agent 144B and tapelibrary 108B are “off-site,” and may be remotely located from the othercomponents in system 100 (e.g., in a different city, office building,etc.). Indeed, “off-site” may refer to a magnetic tape located in remotestorage, which must be manually retrieved and loaded into a tape driveto be read. In this manner, information stored on the tape library 108Bmay provide protection in the event of a disaster or other failure atthe main site(s) where data is stored.

The file system subclient 112A in certain embodiments generallycomprises information generated by the file system and/or operatingsystem of client computing device 102, and can include, for example,file system data (e.g., regular files, file tables, mount points, etc.),operating system data (e.g., registries, event logs, etc.), and thelike. The e-mail subclient 112B can include data generated by an e-mailapplication operating on client computing device 102, e.g., mailboxinformation, folder information, emails, attachments, associateddatabase information, and the like. As described above, the subclientscan be logical containers, and the data included in the correspondingprimary data 112A and 112B may or may not be stored contiguously.

The exemplary storage policy 148A includes backup copy preferences orrule set 160, disaster recovery copy preferences or rule set 162, andcompliance copy preferences or rule set 164. Backup copy rule set 160specifies that it is associated with file system subclient 166 and emailsubclient 168. Each of subclients 166 and 168 are associated with theparticular client computing device 102. Backup copy rule set 160 furtherspecifies that the backup operation will be written to disk library 108Aand designates a particular media agent 144A to convey the data to disklibrary 108A. Finally, backup copy rule set 160 specifies that backupcopies created according to rule set 160 are scheduled to be generatedhourly and are to be retained for 30 days. In some other embodiments,scheduling information is not included in storage policy 148A and isinstead specified by a separate scheduling policy.

Disaster recovery copy rule set 162 is associated with the same twosubclients 166 and 168. However, disaster recovery copy rule set 162 isassociated with tape library 108B, unlike backup copy rule set 160.Moreover, disaster recovery copy rule set 162 specifies that a differentmedia agent, namely 144B, will convey data to tape library 108B.Disaster recovery copies created according to rule set 162 will beretained for 60 days and will be generated daily. Disaster recoverycopies generated according to disaster recovery copy rule set 162 canprovide protection in the event of a disaster or other catastrophic dataloss that would affect the backup copy 116A maintained on disk library108A.

Compliance copy rule set 164 is only associated with the email subclient168, and not the file system subclient 166. Compliance copies generatedaccording to compliance copy rule set 164 will therefore not includeprimary data 112A from the file system subclient 166. For instance, theorganization may be under an obligation to store and maintain copies ofemail data for a particular period of time (e.g., 10 years) to complywith state or federal regulations, while similar regulations do notapply to file system data. Compliance copy rule set 164 is associatedwith the same tape library 108B and media agent 144B as disasterrecovery copy rule set 162, although a different storage device or mediaagent could be used in other embodiments. Finally, compliance copy ruleset 164 specifies that the copies it governs will be generated quarterlyand retained for 10 years.

Secondary Copy Jobs

A logical grouping of secondary copy operations governed by a rule setand being initiated at a point in time may be referred to as a“secondary copy job” (and sometimes may be called a “backup job,” eventhough it is not necessarily limited to creating only backup copies).Secondary copy jobs may be initiated on demand as well. Steps 1-9 belowillustrate three secondary copy jobs based on storage policy 148A.

Referring to FIG. 1E, at step 1, storage manager 140 initiates a backupjob according to the backup copy rule set 160, which logically comprisesall the secondary copy operations necessary to effectuate rules 160 instorage policy 148A every hour, including steps 1-4 occurring hourly.For instance, a scheduling service running on storage manager 140accesses backup copy rule set 160 or a separate scheduling policyassociated with client computing device 102 and initiates a backup jobon an hourly basis. Thus, at the scheduled time, storage manager 140sends instructions to client computing device 102 (i.e., to both dataagent 142A and data agent 142B) to begin the backup job.

At step 2, file system data agent 142A and email data agent 142B onclient computing device 102 respond to instructions from storage manager140 by accessing and processing the respective subclient primary data112A and 112B involved in the backup copy operation, which can be foundin primary storage device 104. Because the secondary copy operation is abackup copy operation, the data agent(s) 142A, 142B may format the datainto a backup format or otherwise process the data suitable for a backupcopy.

At step 3, client computing device 102 communicates the processed filesystem data (e.g., using file system data agent 142A) and the processedemail data (e.g., using email data agent 142B) to the first media agent144A according to backup copy rule set 160, as directed by storagemanager 140. Storage manager 140 may further keep a record in managementdatabase 146 of the association between media agent 144A and one or moreof: client computing device 102, file system subclient 112A, file systemdata agent 142A, email subclient 112B, email data agent 142B, and/orbackup copy 116A.

The target media agent 144A receives the data-agent-processed data fromclient computing device 102, and at step 4 generates and conveys backupcopy 116A to disk library 108A to be stored as backup copy 116A, againat the direction of storage manager 140 and according to backup copyrule set 160. Media agent 144A can also update its index 153 to includedata and/or metadata related to backup copy 116A, such as informationindicating where the backup copy 116A resides on disk library 108A,where the email copy resides, where the file system copy resides, dataand metadata for cache retrieval, etc. Storage manager 140 may similarlyupdate its index 150 to include information relating to the secondarycopy operation, such as information relating to the type of operation, aphysical location associated with one or more copies created by theoperation, the time the operation was performed, status informationrelating to the operation, the components involved in the operation, andthe like. In some cases, storage manager 140 may update its index 150 toinclude some or all of the information stored in index 153 of mediaagent 144A. At this point, the backup job may be considered complete.After the 30-day retention period expires, storage manager 140 instructsmedia agent 144A to delete backup copy 116A from disk library 108A andindexes 150 and/or 153 are updated accordingly.

At step 5, storage manager 140 initiates another backup job for adisaster recovery copy according to the disaster recovery rule set 162.Illustratively this includes steps 5-7 occurring daily for creatingdisaster recovery copy 116B. Illustratively, and by way of illustratingthe scalable aspects and off-loading principles embedded in system 100,disaster recovery copy 116B is based on backup copy 116A and not onprimary data 112A and 112B.

At step 6, illustratively based on instructions received from storagemanager 140 at step 5, the specified media agent 1446 retrieves the mostrecent backup copy 116A from disk library 108A.

At step 7, again at the direction of storage manager 140 and asspecified in disaster recovery copy rule set 162, media agent 144B usesthe retrieved data to create a disaster recovery copy 1166 and store itto tape library 1086. In some cases, disaster recovery copy 116B is adirect, mirror copy of backup copy 116A, and remains in the backupformat. In other embodiments, disaster recovery copy 116B may be furthercompressed or encrypted, or may be generated in some other manner, suchas by using primary data 112A and 1126 from primary storage device 104as sources. The disaster recovery copy operation is initiated once a dayand disaster recovery copies 1166 are deleted after 60 days; indexes 153and/or 150 are updated accordingly when/after each informationmanagement operation is executed and/or completed. The present backupjob may be considered completed.

At step 8, storage manager 140 initiates another backup job according tocompliance rule set 164, which performs steps 8-9 quarterly to createcompliance copy 116C. For instance, storage manager 140 instructs mediaagent 144B to create compliance copy 116C on tape library 1086, asspecified in the compliance copy rule set 164.

At step 9 in the example, compliance copy 116C is generated usingdisaster recovery copy 1166 as the source. This is efficient, becausedisaster recovery copy resides on the same secondary storage device andthus no network resources are required to move the data. In otherembodiments, compliance copy 116C is instead generated using primarydata 112B corresponding to the email subclient or using backup copy 116Afrom disk library 108A as source data. As specified in the illustratedexample, compliance copies 116C are created quarterly, and are deletedafter ten years, and indexes 153 and/or 150 are kept up-to-dateaccordingly.

Exemplary Applications of Storage Policies—Information GovernancePolicies and Classification

Again referring to FIG. 1E, storage manager 140 may permit a user tospecify aspects of storage policy 148A. For example, the storage policycan be modified to include information governance policies to define howdata should be managed in order to comply with a certain regulation orbusiness objective. The various policies may be stored, for example, inmanagement database 146. An information governance policy may align withone or more compliance tasks that are imposed by regulations or businessrequirements. Examples of information governance policies might includea Sarbanes-Oxley policy, a HIPAA policy, an electronic discovery(e-discovery) policy, and so on.

Information governance policies allow administrators to obtain differentperspectives on an organization's online and offline data, without theneed for a dedicated data silo created solely for each differentviewpoint. As described previously, the data storage systems hereinbuild an index that reflects the contents of a distributed data set thatspans numerous clients and storage devices, including both primary dataand secondary copies, and online and offline copies. An organization mayapply multiple information governance policies in a top-down manner overthat unified data set and indexing schema in order to view andmanipulate the data set through different lenses, each of which isadapted to a particular compliance or business goal. Thus, for example,by applying an e-discovery policy and a Sarbanes-Oxley policy, twodifferent groups of users in an organization can conduct two verydifferent analyses of the same underlying physical set of data/copies,which may be distributed throughout the information management system.

An information governance policy may comprise a classification policy,which defines a taxonomy of classification terms or tags relevant to acompliance task and/or business objective. A classification policy mayalso associate a defined tag with a classification rule. Aclassification rule defines a particular combination of criteria, suchas users who have created, accessed or modified a document or dataobject; file or application types; content or metadata keywords; clientsor storage locations; dates of data creation and/or access; reviewstatus or other status within a workflow (e.g., reviewed orun-reviewed); modification times or types of modifications; and/or anyother data attributes in any combination, without limitation. Aclassification rule may also be defined using other classification tagsin the taxonomy. The various criteria used to define a classificationrule may be combined in any suitable fashion, for example, via Booleanoperators, to define a complex classification rule. As an example, ane-discovery classification policy might define a classification tag“privileged” that is associated with documents or data objects that (1)were created or modified by legal department staff, or (2) were sent toor received from outside counsel via email, or (3) contain one of thefollowing keywords: “privileged” or “attorney” or “counsel,” or otherlike terms. Accordingly, all these documents or data objects will beclassified as “privileged.”

One specific type of classification tag, which may be added to an indexat the time of indexing, is an “entity tag.” An entity tag may be, forexample, any content that matches a defined data mask format. Examplesof entity tags might include, e.g., social security numbers (e.g., anynumerical content matching the formatting mask XXX-XX-XXXX), credit cardnumbers (e.g., content having a 13-16 digit string of numbers), SKUnumbers, product numbers, etc. A user may define a classification policyby indicating criteria, parameters or descriptors of the policy via agraphical user interface, such as a form or page with fields to befilled in, pull-down menus or entries allowing one or more of severaloptions to be selected, buttons, sliders, hypertext links or other knownuser interface tools for receiving user input, etc. For example, a usermay define certain entity tags, such as a particular product number orproject ID. In some implementations, the classification policy can beimplemented using cloud-based techniques. For example, the storagedevices may be cloud storage devices, and the storage manager 140 mayexecute cloud service provider API over a network to classify datastored on cloud storage devices.

Restore Operations from Secondary Copies

While not shown in FIG. 1E, at some later point in time, a restoreoperation can be initiated involving one or more of secondary copies116A, 116B, and 116C. A restore operation logically takes a selectedsecondary copy 116, reverses the effects of the secondary copy operationthat created it, and stores the restored data to primary storage where aclient computing device 102 may properly access it as primary data. Amedia agent 144 and an appropriate data agent 142 (e.g., executing onthe client computing device 102) perform the tasks needed to complete arestore operation. For example, data that was encrypted, compressed,and/or deduplicated in the creation of secondary copy 116 will becorrespondingly rehydrated (reversing deduplication), uncompressed, andunencrypted into a format appropriate to primary data. Metadata storedwithin or associated with the secondary copy 116 may be used during therestore operation. In general, restored data should be indistinguishablefrom other primary data 112. Preferably, the restored data has fullyregained the native format that may make it immediately usable byapplication 110.

As one example, a user may manually initiate a restore of backup copy116A, e.g., by interacting with user interface 158 of storage manager140 or with a web-based console with access to system 100. Storagemanager 140 may accesses data in its index 150 and/or managementdatabase 146 (and/or the respective storage policy 148A) associated withthe selected backup copy 116A to identify the appropriate media agent144A and/or secondary storage device 108A where the secondary copyresides. The user may be presented with a representation (e.g., stub,thumbnail, listing, etc.) and metadata about the selected secondarycopy, in order to determine whether this is the appropriate copy to berestored, e.g., date that the original primary data was created. Storagemanager 140 will then instruct media agent 144A and an appropriate dataagent 142 on the target client computing device 102 to restore secondarycopy 116A to primary storage device 104. A media agent may be selectedfor use in the restore operation based on a load balancing algorithm, anavailability based algorithm, or other criteria. The selected mediaagent, e.g., 144A, retrieves secondary copy 116A from disk library 108A.For instance, media agent 144A may access its index 153 to identify alocation of backup copy 116A on disk library 108A, or may accesslocation information residing on disk library 108A itself.

In some cases a backup copy 116A that was recently created or accessed,may be cached to speed up the restore operation. In such a case, mediaagent 144A accesses a cached version of backup copy 116A residing inindex 153, without having to access disk library 108A for some or all ofthe data. Once it has retrieved backup copy 116A, the media agent 144Acommunicates the data to the requesting client computing device 102.Upon receipt, file system data agent 142A and email data agent 142B mayunpack (e.g., restore from a backup format to the native applicationformat) the data in backup copy 116A and restore the unpackaged data toprimary storage device 104. In general, secondary copies 116 may berestored to the same volume or folder in primary storage device 104 fromwhich the secondary copy was derived; to another storage location orclient computing device 102; to shared storage, etc. In some cases, thedata may be restored so that it may be used by an application 110 of adifferent version/vintage from the application that created the originalprimary data 112.

Exemplary Secondary Copy Formatting

The formatting and structure of secondary copies 116 can vary dependingon the embodiment. In some cases, secondary copies 116 are formatted asa series of logical data units or “chunks” (e.g., 512 MB, 1 GB, 2 GB, 4GB, or 8 GB chunks). This can facilitate efficient communication andwriting to secondary storage devices 108, e.g., according to resourceavailability. For example, a single secondary copy 116 may be written ona chunk-by-chunk basis to one or more secondary storage devices 108. Insome cases, users can select different chunk sizes, e.g., to improvethroughput to tape storage devices. Generally, each chunk can include aheader and a payload. The payload can include files (or other dataunits) or subsets thereof included in the chunk, whereas the chunkheader generally includes metadata relating to the chunk, some or all ofwhich may be derived from the payload. For example, during a secondarycopy operation, media agent 144, storage manager 140, or other componentmay divide files into chunks and generate headers for each chunk byprocessing the files. Headers can include a variety of information suchas file and/or volume identifier(s), offset(s), and/or other informationassociated with the payload data items, a chunk sequence number, etc.Importantly, in addition to being stored with secondary copy 116 onsecondary storage device 108, chunk headers can also be stored to index153 of the associated media agent(s) 144 and/or to index 150 associatedwith storage manager 140. This can be useful for providing fasterprocessing of secondary copies 116 during browsing, restores, or otheroperations. In some cases, once a chunk is successfully transferred to asecondary storage device 108, the secondary storage device 108 returnsan indication of receipt, e.g., to media agent 144 and/or storagemanager 140, which may update their respective indexes 153, 150accordingly. During restore, chunks may be processed (e.g., by mediaagent 144) according to the information in the chunk header toreassemble the files.

Data can also be communicated within system 100 in data channels thatconnect client computing devices 102 to secondary storage devices 108.These data channels can be referred to as “data streams,” and multipledata streams can be employed to parallelize an information managementoperation, improving data transfer rate, among other advantages. Exampledata formatting techniques including techniques involving datastreaming, chunking, and the use of other data structures in creatingsecondary copies are described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 7,315,923, 8,156,086,and 8,578,120.

FIGS. 1F and 1G are diagrams of example data streams 170 and 171,respectively, which may be employed for performing informationmanagement operations. Referring to FIG. 1F, data agent 142 forms datastream 170 from source data associated with a client computing device102 (e.g., primary data 112). Data stream 170 is composed of multiplepairs of stream header 172 and stream data (or stream payload) 174. Datastreams 170 and 171 shown in the illustrated example are for asingle-instanced storage operation, and a stream payload 174 thereforemay include both single-instance (SI) data and/or non-SI data. A streamheader 172 includes metadata about the stream payload 174. This metadatamay include, for example, a length of the stream payload 174, anindication of whether the stream payload 174 is encrypted, an indicationof whether the stream payload 174 is compressed, an archive fileidentifier (ID), an indication of whether the stream payload 174 issingle instanceable, and an indication of whether the stream payload 174is a start of a block of data.

Referring to FIG. 1G, data stream 171 has the stream header 172 andstream payload 174 aligned into multiple data blocks. In this example,the data blocks are of size 64 KB. The first two stream header 172 andstream payload 174 pairs comprise a first data block of size 64 KB. Thefirst stream header 172 indicates that the length of the succeedingstream payload 174 is 63 KB and that it is the start of a data block.The next stream header 172 indicates that the succeeding stream payload174 has a length of 1 KB and that it is not the start of a new datablock. Immediately following stream payload 174 is a pair comprising anidentifier header 176 and identifier data 178. The identifier header 176includes an indication that the succeeding identifier data 178 includesthe identifier for the immediately previous data block. The identifierdata 178 includes the identifier that the data agent 142 generated forthe data block. The data stream 171 also includes other stream header172 and stream payload 174 pairs, which may be for SI data and/or non-SIdata.

FIG. 1H is a diagram illustrating data structures 180 that may be usedto store blocks of SI data and non-SI data on a storage device (e.g.,secondary storage device 108). According to certain embodiments, datastructures 180 do not form part of a native file system of the storagedevice. Data structures 180 include one or more volume folders 182, oneor more chunk folders 184/185 within the volume folder 182, and multiplefiles within chunk folder 184. Each chunk folder 184/185 includes ametadata file 186/187, a metadata index file 188/189, one or morecontainer files 190/191/193, and a container index file 192/194.Metadata file 186/187 stores non-SI data blocks as well as links to SIdata blocks stored in container files. Metadata index file 188/189stores an index to the data in the metadata file 186/187. Containerfiles 190/191/193 store SI data blocks. Container index file 192/194stores an index to container files 190/191/193. Among other things,container index file 192/194 stores an indication of whether acorresponding block in a container file 190/191/193 is referred to by alink in a metadata file 186/187. For example, data block B2 in thecontainer file 190 is referred to by a link in metadata file 187 inchunk folder 185. Accordingly, the corresponding index entry incontainer index file 192 indicates that data block B2 in container file190 is referred to. As another example, data block B1 in container file191 is referred to by a link in metadata file 187, and so thecorresponding index entry in container index file 192 indicates thatthis data block is referred to.

As an example, data structures 180 illustrated in FIG. 1H may have beencreated as a result of separate secondary copy operations involving twoclient computing devices 102. For example, a first secondary copyoperation on a first client computing device 102 could result in thecreation of the first chunk folder 184, and a second secondary copyoperation on a second client computing device 102 could result in thecreation of the second chunk folder 185. Container files 190/191 in thefirst chunk folder 184 would contain the blocks of SI data of the firstclient computing device 102. If the two client computing devices 102have substantially similar data, the second secondary copy operation onthe data of the second client computing device 102 would result in mediaagent 144 storing primarily links to the data blocks of the first clientcomputing device 102 that are already stored in the container files190/191. Accordingly, while a first secondary copy operation may resultin storing nearly all of the data subject to the operation, subsequentsecondary storage operations involving similar data may result insubstantial data storage space savings, because links to already storeddata blocks can be stored instead of additional instances of datablocks.

If the operating system of the secondary storage computing device 106 onwhich media agent 144 operates supports sparse files, then when mediaagent 144 creates container files 190/191/193, it can create them assparse files. A sparse file is a type of file that may include emptyspace (e.g., a sparse file may have real data within it, such as at thebeginning of the file and/or at the end of the file, but may also haveempty space in it that is not storing actual data, such as a contiguousrange of bytes all having a value of zero). Having container files190/191/193 be sparse files allows media agent 144 to free up space incontainer files 190/191/193 when blocks of data in container files190/191/193 no longer need to be stored on the storage devices. In someexamples, media agent 144 creates a new container file 190/191/193 whena container file 190/191/193 either includes 100 blocks of data or whenthe size of the container file 190 exceeds 50MB. In other examples,media agent 144 creates a new container file 190/191/193 when acontainer file 190/191/193 satisfies other criteria (e.g., it containsfrom approx. 100 to approx. 1000 blocks or when its size exceedsapproximately 50 MB to 1 GB). In some cases, a file on which a secondarycopy operation is performed may comprise a large number of data blocks.For example, a 100 MB file may comprise 400 data blocks of size 256 KB.If such a file is to be stored, its data blocks may span more than onecontainer file, or even more than one chunk folder. As another example,a database file of 20 GB may comprise over 40,000 data blocks of size512 KB. If such a database file is to be stored, its data blocks willlikely span multiple container files, multiple chunk folders, andpotentially multiple volume folders. Restoring such files may requireaccessing multiple container files, chunk folders, and/or volume foldersto obtain the requisite data blocks.

Using Backup Data for Replication and Disaster Recovery (“LiveSynchronization”)

There is an increased demand to off-load resource intensive informationmanagement tasks (e.g., data replication tasks) away from productiondevices (e.g., physical or virtual client computing devices) in order tomaximize production efficiency. At the same time, enterprises expectaccess to readily-available up-to-date recovery copies in the event offailure, with little or no production downtime.

FIG. 2A illustrates a system 200 configured to address these and otherissues by using backup or other secondary copy data to synchronize asource subsystem 201 (e.g., a production site) with a destinationsubsystem 203 (e.g., a failover site). Such a technique can be referredto as “live synchronization” and/or “live synchronization replication.”In the illustrated embodiment, the source client computing devices 202 ainclude one or more virtual machines (or “VMs”) executing on one or morecorresponding VM host computers 205 a, though the source need not bevirtualized. The destination site 203 may be at a location that isremote from the production site 201, or may be located in the same datacenter, without limitation. One or more of the production site 201 anddestination site 203 may reside at data centers at known geographiclocations, or alternatively may operate “in the cloud.”

The synchronization can be achieved by generally applying an ongoingstream of incremental backups from the source subsystem 201 to thedestination subsystem 203, such as according to what can be referred toas an “incremental forever” approach. FIG. 2A illustrates an embodimentof a data flow which may be orchestrated at the direction of one or morestorage managers (not shown). At step 1, the source data agent(s) 242 aand source media agent(s) 244 a work together to write backup or othersecondary copies of the primary data generated by the source clientcomputing devices 202 a into the source secondary storage device(s) 208a. At step 2, the backup/secondary copies are retrieved by the sourcemedia agent(s) 244 a from secondary storage. At step 3, source mediaagent(s) 244 a communicate the backup/secondary copies across a networkto the destination media agent(s) 244 b in destination subsystem 203.

As shown, the data can be copied from source to destination in anincremental fashion, such that only changed blocks are transmitted, andin some cases multiple incremental backups are consolidated at thesource so that only the most current changed blocks are transmitted toand applied at the destination. An example of live synchronization ofvirtual machines using the “incremental forever” approach is found inU.S. Patent Application No. 62/265,339 entitled “Live Synchronizationand Management of Virtual Machines across Computing and VirtualizationPlatforms and Using Live Synchronization to Support Disaster Recovery.”Moreover, a deduplicated copy can be employed to further reduce networktraffic from source to destination. For instance, the system can utilizethe deduplicated copy techniques described in U.S. Pat. No. 9,239,687,entitled “Systems and Methods for Retaining and Using Data BlockSignatures in Data Protection Operations.”

At step 4, destination media agent(s) 244 b write the receivedbackup/secondary copy data to the destination secondary storagedevice(s) 208 b. At step 5, the synchronization is completed when thedestination media agent(s) and destination data agent(s) 242 b restorethe backup/secondary copy data to the destination client computingdevice(s) 202 b. The destination client computing device(s) 202 b may bekept “warm” awaiting activation in case failure is detected at thesource. This synchronization/replication process can incorporate thetechniques described in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 14/721,971,entitled “Replication Using Deduplicated Secondary Copy Data.”

Where the incremental backups are applied on a frequent, on-going basis,the synchronized copies can be viewed as mirror or replication copies.Moreover, by applying the incremental backups to the destination site203 using backup or other secondary copy data, the production site 201is not burdened with the synchronization operations. Because thedestination site 203 can be maintained in a synchronized “warm” state,the downtime for switching over from the production site 201 to thedestination site 203 is substantially less than with a typical restorefrom secondary storage. Thus, the production site 201 may flexibly andefficiently fail over, with minimal downtime and with relativelyup-to-date data, to a destination site 203, such as a cloud-basedfailover site. The destination site 203 can later be reversesynchronized back to the production site 201, such as after repairs havebeen implemented or after the failure has passed.

Integrating With the Cloud Using File System Protocols

Given the ubiquity of cloud computing, it can be increasingly useful toprovide data protection and other information management services in ascalable, transparent, and highly plug-able fashion. FIG. 2B illustratesan information management system 200 having an architecture thatprovides such advantages, and incorporates use of a standard file systemprotocol between primary and secondary storage subsystems 217, 218. Asshown, the use of the network file system (NFS) protocol (or any anotherappropriate file system protocol such as that of the Common InternetFile System (CIFS)) allows data agent 242 to be moved from the primarystorage subsystem 217 to the secondary storage subsystem 218. Forinstance, as indicated by the dashed box 206 around data agent 242 andmedia agent 244, data agent 242 can co-reside with media agent 244 onthe same server (e.g., a secondary storage computing device such ascomponent 106), or in some other location in secondary storage subsystem218.

Where NFS is used, for example, secondary storage subsystem 218allocates an NFS network path to the client computing device 202 or toone or more target applications 210 running on client computing device202. During a backup or other secondary copy operation, the clientcomputing device 202 mounts the designated NFS path and writes data tothat NFS path. The NFS path may be obtained from NFS path data 215stored locally at the client computing device 202, and which may be acopy of or otherwise derived from NFS path data 219 stored in thesecondary storage subsystem 218.

Write requests issued by client computing device(s) 202 are received bydata agent 242 in secondary storage subsystem 218, which translates therequests and works in conjunction with media agent 244 to process andwrite data to a secondary storage device(s) 208, thereby creating abackup or other secondary copy. Storage manager 240 can include apseudo-client manager 217, which coordinates the process by, among otherthings, communicating information relating to client computing device202 and application 210 (e.g., application type, client computing deviceidentifier, etc.) to data agent 242, obtaining appropriate NFS path datafrom the data agent 242 (e.g., NFS path information), and deliveringsuch data to client computing device 202.

Conversely, during a restore or recovery operation client computingdevice 202 reads from the designated NFS network path, and the readrequest is translated by data agent 242. The data agent 242 then workswith media agent 244 to retrieve, re-process (e.g., re-hydrate,decompress, decrypt), and forward the requested data to client computingdevice 202 using NFS.

By moving specialized software associated with system 200 such as dataagent 242 off the client computing devices 202, the illustrativearchitecture effectively decouples the client computing devices 202 fromthe installed components of system 200, improving both scalability andplug-ability of system 200. Indeed, the secondary storage subsystem 218in such environments can be treated simply as a read/write NFS targetfor primary storage subsystem 217, without the need for informationmanagement software to be installed on client computing devices 202. Asone example, an enterprise implementing a cloud production computingenvironment can add VM client computing devices 202 without installingand configuring specialized information management software on theseVMs. Rather, backups and restores are achieved transparently, where thenew VMs simply write to and read from the designated NFS path. Anexample of integrating with the cloud using file system protocols orso-called “infinite backup” using NFS share is found in U.S. PatentApplication No. 62/294,920, entitled “Data Protection Operations Basedon Network Path Information.” Examples of improved data restorationscenarios based on network-path information, including using storedbackups effectively as primary data sources, may be found in U.S. PatentApplication No. 62/297,057, entitled “Data Restoration Operations Basedon Network Path Information.”

Highly Scalable Managed Data Pool Architecture

Enterprises are seeing explosive data growth in recent years, often fromvarious applications running in geographically distributed locations.FIG. 2C shows a block diagram of an example of a highly scalable,managed data pool architecture useful in accommodating such data growth.The illustrated system 200, which may be referred to as a “web-scale”architecture according to certain embodiments, can be readilyincorporated into both open compute/storage and common-cloudarchitectures.

The illustrated system 200 includes a grid 245 of media agents 244logically organized into a control tier 231 and a secondary or storagetier 233. Media agents assigned to the storage tier 233 can beconfigured to manage a secondary storage pool 208 as a deduplicationstore, and be configured to receive client write and read requests fromthe primary storage subsystem 217, and direct those requests to thesecondary tier 233 for servicing. For instance, media agents CMA1-CMA3in the control tier 231 maintain and consult one or more deduplicationdatabases 247, which can include deduplication information (e.g., datablock hashes, data block links, file containers for deduplicated files,etc.) sufficient to read deduplicated files from secondary storage pool208 and write deduplicated files to secondary storage pool 208. Forinstance, system 200 can incorporate any of the deduplication systemsand methods shown and described in U.S. Pat. No. 9,020,900, entitled“Distributed Deduplicated Storage System,” and U.S. Pat. Pub. No.2014/0201170, entitled “High Availability Distributed DeduplicatedStorage System.”

Media agents SMA1-SMA6 assigned to the secondary tier 233 receive writeand read requests from media agents CMA1-CMA3 in control tier 231, andaccess secondary storage pool 208 to service those requests. Mediaagents CMA1-CMA3 in control tier 231 can also communicate with secondarystorage pool 208, and may execute read and write requests themselves(e.g., in response to requests from other control media agentsCMA1-CMA3) in addition to issuing requests to media agents in secondarytier 233. Moreover, while shown as separate from the secondary storagepool 208, deduplication database(s) 247 can in some cases reside instorage devices in secondary storage pool 208.

As shown, each of the media agents 244 (e.g., CMA1-CMA3, SMA1-SMA6,etc.) in grid 245 can be allocated a corresponding dedicated partition251A-2511, respectively, in secondary storage pool 208. Each partition251 can include a first portion 253 containing data associated with(e.g., stored by) media agent 244 corresponding to the respectivepartition 251. System 200 can also implement a desired level ofreplication, thereby providing redundancy in the event of a failure of amedia agent 244 in grid 245. Along these lines, each partition 251 canfurther include a second portion 255 storing one or more replicationcopies of the data associated with one or more other media agents 244 inthe grid.

System 200 can also be configured to allow for seamless addition ofmedia agents 244 to grid 245 via automatic configuration. As oneillustrative example, a storage manager (not shown) or other appropriatecomponent may determine that it is appropriate to add an additional nodeto control tier 231, and perform some or all of the following: (i)assess the capabilities of a newly added or otherwise availablecomputing device as satisfying a minimum criteria to be configured as orhosting a media agent in control tier 231; (ii) confirm that asufficient amount of the appropriate type of storage exists to supportan additional node in control tier 231 (e.g., enough disk drive capacityexists in storage pool 208 to support an additional deduplicationdatabase 247); (iii) install appropriate media agent software on thecomputing device and configure the computing device according to apre-determined template; (iv) establish a partition 251 in the storagepool 208 dedicated to the newly established media agent 244; and (v)build any appropriate data structures (e.g., an instance ofdeduplication database 247). An example of highly scalable managed datapool architecture or so-called web-scale architecture for storage anddata management is found in U.S. Patent Application No. 62/273,286entitled “Redundant and Robust Distributed Deduplication Data StorageSystem.”

The embodiments and components thereof disclosed in FIGS. 2A, 2B, and2C, as well as those in FIGS. 1A-1H, may be implemented in anycombination and permutation to satisfy data storage management andinformation management needs at one or more locations and/or datacenters.

Snapshot-Based Disaster Recovery Orchestration of Virtual MachineFailover and Failback Operations

FIG. 3A is a block diagram illustrating system 300 for snap-baseddisaster recovery orchestration of virtual machine failover and failbackoperations, according to an illustrative embodiment. FIG. 3A depictslogical views of connections, relationships, and/or operationsassociated with system 300; the connections and operations are supportedby a physical networking and communications infrastructure that is wellknown in the art. FIG. 3A depicts: data storage management system 300 incommunication with virtualization manager (e.g., vCenter VM servermanager) 303 and primary storage resources (e.g., storage array/filer)304 at a virtualized data center, which is a source for failover and adestination for failback; system 300 in further communication withfailover virtualization manager 383D and failover storage resources384D, which are configured at a virtualized DR site, which is a failoverdestination. FIG. 3A further depicts VMs 302, which are managed bymanager 303; snapshot replication operation 305; and VMs 382D, which aremanaged by manager 383D.

Data storage management system 300 is a system analogous to system 100and further comprising additional functionality for snap-based DRorchestration, such as administrative features for defining andconfiguring source and failover components, failover groups,customization of failover components, mapping between source andfailover VMs, scheduling and tracking of snapshot generation andsnapshot replication, etc. More details are given in FIGS. 4, 5A, and5B.

VMs 302 are virtual machines that execute on one or more VM hosts (notshown in the present figure) and are managed by manager 303. VMs 302 aresaid to be sources of data, because they operate in a productionenvironment. Each VM 302 has a datastore (e.g., VMDK, virtual disk,etc.) that comprises the VMs data and is configured in an associatedprimary data storage 304, such as the depicted storage array/filer orcloud storage resources (not shown here). There is no limit on how manyVMs 302 can be failed over by system 300 using the illustrativesnap-based DR orchestration techniques described herein. VMs 302 andtheir host computing devices are protected by but are not part of system300.

Primary virtualization manager 303 (or “manager 303”) is a computingdevice (e.g., a server) that provides a centralized platform forcontrolling any number of VM hosts and their VMs. One illustrativeexample is VMware vCenter Server from VMware, but the invention is notlimited to VMware virtualization. As shown later, a specialized dataagent component of system 300 (e.g., virtual server agent 442)interoperates with manager 303 to ensure that VMs 302 and theirdatastores are protected by system 300, e.g., making backup copies,replicating datastores, orchestrating failover, etc.

Primary data storage 304 are one or more data storage devices that areconfigured to store primary data for and generated by VMs 302, i.e.,primary data storage 304 is where datastores 504 for VMs 302 reside.Examples of primary data storage 304 include SAN storage arrays, NASfilers/clusters, and/or cloud storage (not shown here). Primary datastorage 304 are equipped with features for taking/making snapshots oftheir own data storage volumes, which are referred to herein as“hardware snapshots.” Primary data storage 304 are further equipped toreplicate snapshots to another storage resource, e.g., 384C, 384D, etc.NetApp data storage appliances are an example storage array/filer 304,but the invention is not limited to NetApp appliances or NetAppreplication.

Snapshot replication 305 represents a number of operations performed bydata storage resources 304/384 and managed by components of system 300(e.g., storage manager 440, media agent 444, etc.). Primary data storage304 are equipped with features for taking/making snapshots of their owndata storage volumes, which are referred to herein as “hardwaresnapshots.” Each hardware snapshot is stored at the storage resource(e.g., array) that took the snapshot, e.g., 304. System 300 manages theschedule for and initiates the creation of the snapshots bycommunicating instructions to primary data storage 304. Primary datastorage 304 are further equipped with features for replicating thesnapshots to other like (or compatible) storage resources, e.g., 384C,384D, etc. The source and destination storage resources sometimesmaintain a so-called “mirror relationship” that ensures that snapshotsat the destination are read-only in order to be available for DR asneeded.

In some embodiments, these replication operations are referred to as“array-to-array” replication, because the arrays/filers communicate witheach other to structure and transmit each snapshot, even though theoperation is scheduled and initiated by system 300 (e.g., using anauxiliary copy job). Of course, similar and equivalent techniques areused between arrays and cloud storage resources, or cloud-to-cloud. Someembodiments that use NetApp arrays use so-called “vault copy” featuresto replicate snapshots from source to DR site. Other embodiments thatuse NetApp arrays use so-called “mirror copy” features to replicatesnapshots from source to destination. The embodiments are not limited toNetApp arrays or to these techniques for replicating snapshots.

An auxiliary copy job as managed by system 300 comprises snapshotreplication operation 305 (“array-to-array” replication or equivalentto/from/between cloud storage resources). Alternatively, theillustrative DR orchestration job as managed by system 300 comprisessnapshot replication operation 305 (array-to-array or equivalentto/from/between cloud storage resources).

VMs 382D are VMs at a virtualized data center acting as a DR site. TheseVMs are managed by manager 383D at the DR site. VMs 382D are shown herein a dotted outline, because according to the illustrative snap-based DRorchestration approach, they are not active until failover. Each VM 382Dis pre-administered in system 300 to correspond (or map) to a source VM302. Thus, each source VM 302 maps to a DR VM382D (or 382C in the nextfigure).

Failover virtualization manager 383D (or “manager 383D”) is analogous tomanager 303 and operates at the DR site. Manager 383D manages VMs 382Dand as noted above does not activate (power up) these VMs untilfailover. Likewise, manager 383D does not activate datastores for VMs382D until failover.

Failover storage resources 384D are configured at a virtualized DR site,which is a failover destination. Failover storage 384D (e.g., storagearray, filer, filer cluster, etc.) are analogous to primary data storage304, but operate at the DR site. Failover storage 384C comprise a numberof storage volumes (not shown here) for storing the replicated snapshotreceived from primary data storage 304. However, these data storagevolumes do not become associated with VMs 382D until such time asmanager 383D establishes for each failover VM 382D a correspondingdatastore in one of the data storage volumes in failover storageresources 384D.

FIG. 3B is a block diagram illustrating the system 300, wherein the DRsite is implemented in a cloud computing environment, according to anillustrative embodiment. FIG. 3B depicts logical views of connections,relationships, and/or operations associated with system 300; theconnections and operations are supported by a physical networking andcommunications infrastructure that is well known in the art. FIG. 3Bdepicts: data storage management system 300 in communication withprimary virtualization manager (e.g., vCenter) 303 and primary storage(e.g., storage array/filer) 304 at a virtualized data center, which is asource for failover and a destination for failback; system 300 is infurther communication with failover virtualization manager 383C andcloud-based failover storage resources 384C, which are configured atcloud computing environment 390, which is a failover destination. FIG.3B further depicts VMs 302, which are managed by manager 303; snapshotreplication operation 305; and VMs 382C, which are managed by manager383C.

VMs 382C are analogous to VMs 382D and are instantiated in cloudcomputing environment 390. Collectively, VMs 382C or VMs 382D arereferred to herein as “failover VMs 382” as a shorthand.

Manager 383C is functionally analogous to manager 383D and isinstantiated in cloud computing environment 390. Managers 383C and/or383D are referred to herein as “failover virtualization manager 383” asa shorthand.

Cloud-based failover storage resources 384C are functionally analogousto storage array/filer 384D and are instantiated in cloud computingenvironment 390. An illustrative example is Amazon AWS Elastic BlockStore (“EBS”), which is well known in the art—but the invention is notso limited. Like array-based storage 384D, cloud-based failover storage384C comprises data storage volumes (not shown here) that receive andstore replicated snapshots from the source site. However, these datastorage volumes do not become associated with failover VMs 382C untilsuch time as failover virtualization manager 383C establishes for eachfailover VM 382C a corresponding datastore in one of the data storagevolumes in failover storage resources 384C.

Any cloud-based storage technology may be used as failover storageresources 384C. Collectively, storage resources 384C and 384D at the DRsite are referred to herein as “failover storage 384” as a shorthand.

Although not expressly depicted in FIGS. 3A and 3B, some alternativeembodiments comprise a cloud computing environment at the source and avirtualized data center at the DR site; other alternative embodimentscomprise a cloud computing environment at both source and DR site,whether the cloud computing environments are from the same cloud serviceprovider or different ones. The latter scenario enables cloud-to-cloudfailovers. Although not expressly depicted in FIGS. 3A and 3B, somealternative environments comprise more than one DR site, thus enabling achoice or DR sites for clone testing and planned failovers.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram illustrating some salient components of system300, according to an illustrative embodiment. FIG. 4 depicts VMs 302,manager 303, storage 304, snapshot replication 305, failover storage384, failover virtualization manager 383, and failover VMs 382; andcomponents of data storage management system 300 including: storagemanager 440, virtual server agent 442, media agent 444, virtual serveragent (VSA) 492, and media agent 494.

Storage manager 440 is analogous to storage manager 140 and furthercomprises additional features for operating in system 300, such asfeatures for managing snap-based DR orchestration. More details aregiven in other figures.

Virtual server agent (VSA) 442 (or “VSA data agent 442”) is a data agentanalogous to data agent 142 and additionally comprising features foroperating in system 300, such as interoperability with DR orchestrationlogic in storage manager 440. VSA data agent 442 is generallyresponsible for taking part in snap backup jobs, e.g., triggeringmanager 303 to quiesce one or more source VMs 302 so that storage 304can take a snapshot of the volumes hosting the datastore(s)corresponding to the source VM(s) 302. VSA data agent 442 communicateswith media agent 444 and with storage manager 440, which manages snapbackup jobs, auxiliary copy jobs, and DR orchestration jobs. Moredetails are given in other figures.

Media agent 444 is analogous to media agent 144 and additionallycomprises features for operating in system 300, such as interoperabilitywith DR orchestration logic in storage manager 440. Media agent 444 isgenerally responsible for instructing storage 304 to take a snapshot ofthe volumes hosting the datastore(s) corresponding to the source VM(s)302 in a snap backup job, and is further responsible for instructingstorage 304 to replicate snapshot(s) to failover storage 384 in anauxiliary copy job. Media agent 444 also maintains indexing information(e.g., in a media agent index 153) that tracks information about thesnapshots generated and replicated by the snap backup jobs and auxiliarycopy jobs. Media agent 444 communicates with VSA data agent 442 and withstorage manager 440, which manages snap backup jobs, auxiliary copyjobs, and DR orchestration jobs. More details are given in otherfigures.

Virtual server agent (VSA) 492 is analogous to VSA data agent 442 and isassociated with failover virtualization manager 383. Accordingly, in aDR orchestration job, VSA 492 instructs failover virtualization manager383 when to create datastores for failover VMs 382, causes failovervirtualization manager 383 to register failover VMs 382 and implementcustomized parameters, and cause the failover VMs 382 to be powered onat the DR site. VSA 492 communicates with media agent 494 and storagemanager 440 during DR orchestration jobs to perform failovers to the DRsite and/or failbacks therefrom.

Media agent 494 is analogous to media agent 444 and is associated withfailover storage 384. Accordingly, in a DR orchestration job, mediaagent 494 instructs failover storage 384 to bring online certain datastorage volumes comprising replicated snapshots to be used in thefailover. These data storage volumes will be configured as datastoresfor the failover VMs 382. Media agent 494 communicates with VSA 492 andwith storage manager 440 during DR orchestration jobs to performfailovers to the DR site and/or failbacks therefrom.

System 300 is not limited to the depicted components shown in thepresent figure. One or more of the components shown in system 100 and200 herein also can be present in system 300. Likewise, there is nolimit to how many VSA data agent 442, VSA 492, media agents 444, and/ormedia agents 494 are configured in system 300.

FIG. 5A is a block diagram illustrating some salient components ofsystem 300, wherein the source site and DR site are virtualized datacenters, according to an illustrative embodiment. The present figuresdepicts: virtualization manager 303; primary storage 304 comprisingdatastore 504; failover virtualization manager 383; failover storage 384comprising datastore 584; storage manager 440 comprising managementdatabase 146 and DR orchestration logic 540; VM host 502 comprising VMs302 managed by hypervisor 512; backup node 550 comprising VSA data agent442 and media agent 444; VM host 552 comprising failover VMs 382 managedby hypervisor 553; and backup node 590 comprising VSA 492 and mediaagent 494. Storage manager 440, backup node 540, and backup node 590 arecomponents of data storage management system 300. In alternativeembodiments, the computing devices 540 and 590 hosting VSAs and mediaagents are not part of system 300, whereas VSAs, media agents, andstorage manager 440 form a core portion of system 300.

Management database 146 is a logical components of storage manager 440and comprises storage policies and schedules that govern snap backupcopy jobs and auxiliary copy jobs, which may or may not be invoked by aDR orchestration job. In some scenarios (e.g., unplanned failovers,clone testing), the DR orchestration job uses snapshots that werepreviously generated and replicated in the ordinary course of snapbackup jobs and auxiliary copy jobs, respectively. In other scenarios(e.g., planned failovers, clone testing), the DR orchestration invokes asnap backup job and an auxiliary copy job on demand to ensure that theplanned failover/clone testing uses the latest data snapshotted fromdatastore(s) 504.

VM host 502 is a computing device comprising one or more hardwareprocessors and computer memory and is configured for hosting virtualmachines 302. The hosting is managed and controlled by hypervisor 512,which is any kind of hypervisor and is well known in the art.

Datastore 504 is a repository for storing data and/or metadata that isassociated with, is used by, and is generated by a corresponding VM suchas production VMs 302. Each VM 302 has a corresponding datastore 504;the relationship between datastore 504 and its corresponding VM 302 isestablished by virtualization manager 303. Each datastore 504 isconfigured in a data storage volume (physical volume or logical volume)599 configured in a data storage resource such as primary storage 304.More details are given in FIG. 5C.

DR orchestration logic 540 is a functional component of storage manager440. DR orchestration logic 540 is generally responsible for performinga number of operations, at the source and at the DR site, thatcollectively ensure a successful failover occurs. DR orchestration logicalso manages failbacks. More details are given in regard to method 600.

Backup node 550 is a computing device that comprises one or morehardware processors and computer memory for executing or hosting one ormore VSA data agent 442 data agents and one or more media agents 444.Backup node 540 is illustratively configured in the same data center asthe source data in datastores 504 associated with source/production VMs302.

VM host 552 is a computing device comprising one or more hardwareprocessors and computer memory and is configured for hosting failovervirtual machines 382. The hosting is managed and controlled byhypervisor 553, which is any kind of hypervisor and is well known in theart. Hypervisor 553 may be the same as hypervisor 512, but the inventionis not so limited. Other compatible or like hypervisors also may beimplemented without guaranteeing exact identity to hypervisor 512.

Datastore 584 is analogous to datastore 504. Each datastore 584 has acorresponding failover VM 382. The reason for the dotted arrow betweendatastore 584 and failover VM 382 is that this relationship isestablished at failover time, since failover VMs 382 and datastores 584are not maintained in an active state prior to failover.

Backup node 590 is a computing device that comprises one or morehardware processors and computer memory for executing or hosting one ormore VSA 492 data agents and one or more media agents 494. Backup node590 is illustratively configured at the DR site. Co-location (physicalor logical in the same cloud computing account) provides improvedperformance between backup node 590 and communicatively coupledcomponents failover storage 384 and failover virtualization manager 383.

The dotted arrows shown between certain components at the DR siteillustrate that failover VMs 382 and their corresponding datastores 584are not maintained in an active state prior to failover. See method 600in FIG. 6 for more details.

FIG. 5B is a block diagram illustrating some salient components ofsystem 300, wherein the DR site is implemented in a cloud computingenvironment, according to an illustrative embodiment. Most of thecomponents were shown and described in earlier figures. The presentfigure depicts a cloud computing environment 390 (e.g., a customer'scloud computing account) that hosts failover components such as failoverstorage 384, failover virtualization manager 383, and failover VMs 382.Cloud computing environment 390 also hosts one or more on-demand VMsthat act as backup node(s) 592, each backup node 592 hosting a VSA 492data agent and/or a media agent 494. Thus, the depicted DR site ishosted in a cloud service account that is fully equipped to act as afailover site using the illustrative snap-based DR orchestrationapproach. In some embodiments (not shown here), the source/failback siteis also hosted by a cloud computing environment suitably equipped withall the depicted components. In such an embodiment, backup node 550 andstorage manager 440 execute on VMs instantiated at the source/failbacksite. In some other embodiments, storage manager 440 isconfigured/instantiated at another, distinct data center or cloudservice account, and need not be co-located (physically or logically)with the other components of system 300, such as VSA data agent 442,media agent 444, VSA 492, or media agent 494.

The dotted arrows shown between certain components at the DR siteillustrate that failover VMs 382 and their corresponding datastores 584are not maintained in an active state prior to failover. See method 600in FIG. 6 for more details.

FIG. 5C is a block diagram illustrating come salient components involvedin snap backup jobs and auxiliary copy jobs according to an illustrativeembodiment. FIG. 5C depicts: primary storage 304 comprising data store504 configured in a data storage volume 598, and snapshot S598 takenfrom volume 598; failover storage 384 comprising replicated snapshotSR598, which is replicated from snapshot S598, and data storage volume599 comprising data store 584; backup node 550 comprising VSA data agent442 and media agent 444; and backup node 590/592 comprising VSA 492 andmedia agent 494.

Data storage volume 598 is a physical volume or a logical volume (e.g.,implemented using a logical volume manager) implemented in primary datastorage 304. Data storage volume 598 comprises one or more datastores504, each data store 504 associated with a different source VM 302.

Snapshot S598 is a hardware snapshot of data storage volume 598 taken byprimary storage 304 as directed by media agent 444, e.g., using APIs,using custom scripts, etc. Snapshot S598 is taken in the course of asnap backup job managed by storage manager 440. Snapshot S598 is storedat primary storage 304.

Snapshot S598 is replicated by primary storage 304 to failover storage384 as directed by media agent 444 in the course of an auxiliary copyjob managed by storage manager 440. The auxiliary copy job generates asnapshot SR598 that is a replica of snapshot S598. Snapshot SR598 isstored at failover storage 384 in a data storage volume 599. At failovertime, the DR orchestration job will create a relationship between datain snapshot SR598 and a failover VM 382 and will establish datastore 584corresponding to the failover VM 382.

FIG. 6 is a flow chart that depicts some salient operations of a method600 according to an illustrative embodiment. Method 600 is performed byone or more components of system 300, except as stated otherwise.Components of system 300 interoperate with each other and with othercomponents described herein to successfully orchestrate DR failovers andfailbacks using snap-based technologies.

At block 602, hardware components (e.g., VM hosts, virtualizationmanagers, storage resources, backup nodes, storage manager, etc.) andnetworking are configured at source virtualized data center and atDR/failover site. This initial set-up is well known in the art.

At block 604, storage manager 440 configures storage policies for snapbackup jobs and auxiliary copy jobs. The storage policies govern whensnap backup and auxiliary copy jobs are to run and which media agent(s)(e.g., 444, 494) will be involved in each job, as well specifying thedata sources for the jobs, e.g., datastore 504, data storage volume 598,snapshot S598, etc. The storage policies are illustratively stored inmanagement database 146. See also FIG. 13.

At block 606, storage manager 440 configures parameters for the sourcedata and the failover destination. A number of administrative entriesare configured here, e.g., failover group, VM host mapping, networksettings, domain & IP address customization for DR site, etc. Forexample, a failover group is defined, which specifies one or more sourceVMs 302 to be failed over by DR orchestration jobs, a mapping betweensource VM host 502 and DR VM host 552, and an indication that thefailover is to be made using the illustrative snap-based DRorchestration approach. See also FIG. 11, FIG. 12. Customization ensuresthat appropriate IP addresses and domain names are used at the DR site.In effect, block 606 ensures that there is a complete plan for selectingsource VMs 302 and failing them over to appropriate entities at the DRsite. Thus, block 606 provides a font of information to be used by theDR orchestration job in order to have a successful failover event.Illustratively, all the administrative parameters configured at block606 are stored in management database 146. Illustratively one or more ofthese administrative parameters are communicated as needed by storagemanager 440 to media agents and data agents when initiating the DRorchestration job.

At block 608, system 300 performs snap backup jobs. For example, storagemanager 440 instructs media agent 444 and VSA data agent 442 to launch asnap backup job for a certain source VM 302. VSA data agent 442 reportsto media agent 444 an identity of where the VM's datastore is located,e.g., in a data storage volume 598. Media agent 444 instructs (e.g.,using APIs, custom scripts, etc.) primary storage 304 to take a snapshotof data storage volume 598, resulting in snapshot S598 stored in primarystorage 304. The successful generation of snapshot S598 is noted bymedia agent 444 and the snapshot is tracked in media agent index 153 atmedia agent 444. These snap backup jobs are performed according to aplan (e.g., RPO plan, opportunistic plan, etc.), schedule, and/orstorage policies, one or more of which are administered at storagemanager 440 and illustratively stored in management database 146. Jobresults and the location of media agent 153 are reported back to storagemanager 440 for future reference.

At block 610, system 300 performs auxiliary copy jobs to replicatesnapshots from primary storage 304 to failover storage 384 (e.g., array,filer, cloud). Accordingly, storage manager 440 initiates an auxiliarycopy job by instructing media manager to replicate snapshot(s) inprimary storage (e.g., snapshot S598) to failover storage 384. Mediaagent 444 in turn instructs primary storage 304 (e.g., using APIs,custom scripts, etc.) to begin an “array-to-array” snapshot replicationoperation. “Array-to-array” is used here as shorthand forhardware-to-hardware replication, which is handled by the storageresources themselves under the direction and instruction of media agent444 as directed by storage manager 440. Thus, system 300 is responsiblefor the auxiliary copy job, even if the replication operation itself isperformed by the storage resources. The replicated snapshot SR598 isstored at failover storage 384. Media agent(s) 494 and/or 444 note thecompletion of the snapshot replication and update media agent index 153with information about replicated snapshot SR598. These auxiliary copyjobs are performed according to a plan (e.g., RPO plan, opportunisticplan, etc.), schedule, and/or storage policies, one or more of which areadministered at storage manager 440 and illustratively stored inmanagement database 146. Job results and the location of media agent 153are reported back to storage manager 440 for future reference. Fromblock 610, control passes to block 612, block 614, and/or block 616.

At block 612, system 300 performs an illustrative DR orchestration jobto test the DR/failover site configuration, e.g., test clones. Thisoperation is distinguishable from failover scenarios (blocks 614, 616),because a replicated snapshot at the failover site is cloned there fortest purposes without actually failing over source VMs 302. More detailsare given in a subsequent figure. After block 612, method 600 may end orcontrol may pass (not shown here) to block 608, 610, 612, 614, or 616,without limitation.

At block 614, system 300 performs an illustrative DR orchestration jobto conduct a planned failover. This operation is distinguishable fromunplanned failover scenarios (block 616), because it includes anon-demand snap backup job immediately followed by an auxiliary copy jobto ensure that the latest source data from VMs 302 is captured in theplanned failover. In contrast to the test clone scenario (block 612) aso-called “mirror relationship” between primary storage and failoverstorage is affirmatively broken in order to stop further replicationoperations and to enable the failover site to take over in a production(data generation) mode in placed of the original site. More details aregiven in a subsequent figure.

At block 616, system 300 performs an illustrative DR orchestration jobto conduct an unplanned failover. This operation is distinguishable fromplanned failover scenarios (block 614), because it relies on precedingsnap backup and auxiliary copy job(s) that generated replicatedsnapshot(s) SR598 at the failover storage. These previously generatedreplaced snapshots SR598 will become datastores for the failover VMs382, thus capturing the most recently replicated data from source VMs302, though not necessarily the most recently generated data from sourceVMs 302. In contrast to the test clone scenario (block 612) theunplanned failure at the source data center breaks a so-called “mirrorrelationship” between primary storage and failover storage, whichdisables further replication operations. More details are given in asubsequent figure.

At block 620, which follows a planned failover (block 614) and/or anunplanned failover (block 616), system 300 uses another DR orchestrationjob to perform a failback operation and optionally to integrate DR sitedata generated after failover back into the original data sources. Thisoperation is described in more detail in a subsequent figure. Afterblock 620, method 600 may end or control may pass (not shown here) toother blocks, e.g., 608, 610, 612, 614, 616, without limitation.

FIG. 7 depicts some salient operations of block 612 in method 600. Block612 is generally directed to performing a DR orchestration job to testthe DR/failover site (test clone scenario). The DR orchestration job isinitiated and managed by storage manager 440 and involves one or morecomponents of system 300, e.g., VSA data agent 442, media agent 444,data agent 492, and/or media agent 494 as described in more detailbelow.

At block 702, system 300 optionally performs blocks 608 and 610 ondemand if more recent replicated snapshots SR598 are needed at the DRsite for the test. In some cases, older replicated snapshots SR598 arereadily available at the DR site from earlier snap backup and auxiliarycopy jobs.

At block 704, system 300 clones replicated snapshot(s) SR598 intocorresponding clone snapshots (not shown). Illustratively, the cloningoperation is performed by failover storage 384 as instructed by mediaagent 494, under the direction of storage manager 440. Media agent 494uses APIs, custom scripts, and/or other communication protocols tocommunicate with failover storage 384. The cloned snapshots are storedat failover storage 384.

At block 706, failover virtualization server 383 creates a datastore foreach failover VM 382 using the cloned snapshots. Illustratively thisoperation is directed by VSA data agent 492. To properly direct manager383, VSA data agent 492 receives certain administrative parameters fromstorage manager 440, e.g., mapping information administered for thefailover group at block 606. See also FIG. 12. Information about theclone snapshots and the VM data therein (from source VMs 302) isobtained from media agent 494 and/or from storage manager 440.Accordingly, VSA data agent 492 instructs manager 383 to designate adatastore 584 for each failover VM 382, wherein datastore 584 comprisesa certain clone snapshot generated at block 704.

At block 708, failover virtualization manager 383 registers failover VMs382, configures customization, and powers on failover VMs 382.Illustratively, this operation is directed by VSA data agent 492. Toproperly direct manager 383, VSA data agent 492 receives certainadministrative parameters from storage manager 440, e.g., networksettings, mapping information, and/or IP addresses that wereadministered for the failover group at block 606. See also FIG. 12. Atthis point, failover VMs 382 are active with connectivity and access totheir respective datastores 584.

Block 710 confirms that failover VMs 382 are operational at the DR siteas configured with access to each respective datastore 584. Failover VMs382 are up and running at the DR/failover site using the clonedsnapshots as their datastores. Each failover VM 382 may read, write,change, and/or delete data in its respective/corresponding datastore584. Automatic and/or manual operations are executed at this stage toverify that one or more failover VMs 382 are operational at the DR siteas configured by pre-failover administration and using the clonedreplicated snapshots (hence the “clone testing” moniker).

At block 712, system 300 powers down failover VMs 382, deletes theirdatastores, and deletes the cloned snapshots to “undo the testfailover.” This operation is also initiated by storage manager 440,which directs VSA data agent 492 to instruct failover virtualizationmanager 383 to power down failover VMs 382, de-register VMs 382, andsever the datastore relationship to the cloned snapshots. Storagemanager 440 further directs media agent 494 to instructs failoverstorage 384 to delete the cloned snapshots. Block 612 ends.

Throughout block 612, source/production VMs 302 continue operating atthe source site; snap backup jobs are performed; auxiliary copy jobs arealso performed—unfettered by the test failover (clone testing)operations at the DR site.

FIG. 8 depicts some salient operations of block 614 in method 600. Block614 is generally directed to performing a DR orchestration job for aplanned failover to the DR site. The DR orchestration job is initiatedand managed by storage manager 440 and involves one or more componentsof system 300, e.g., VSA data agent 442, media agent 444, data agent492, and/or media agent 494 as described in more detail below. Based onstorage policies and failover groups administered at storage manager440, storage manager 440 selects one or more source VMs 302 for thepresent planned failover.

At block 802, at the source data center, system 300 powers off sourceVMs 302. Illustratively storage manager 440 directs VSA data agent 442to instruct virtualization manager 303 to power off the selected one ormore VMs 302. Manager 303 comprises features for causing VMs 302 topower off, e.g., commands to hypervisor 512, commands to VM host 502,etc., without limitation. This operation freezes any further datachanges in the source VMs' datastores 504.

At block 804, at the source data center, system 300 performs anon-demand snap backup job to take snapshots S598 of datastores 504corresponding to the one or more powered off source VMs. Snap backupjobs are described in more detail elsewhere herein, e.g., at block 608.

At block 806, system 300 performs an on-demand auxiliary copy job toreplicate snapshots S598 to failover storage 384 at the DR site (e.g.,array, filer, cloud), i.e., to generate replicates snapshot(s) SR598.Auxiliary copy jobs are described in more detail elsewhere herein, e.g.,at block 610.

At block 808, system 300 breaks the so-called “mirror relationship”between primary storage 304 and failover storage 384, which waspreviously established to enable “array-to-array” (or equivalent)replication jobs therebetween. One of the features of the mirrorrelationship is that it maintains the replicated snapshots at thefailover storage 384 in a read-only state to prevent replicated datafrom being changed at the DR site. By breaking the mirror relationship,the DR orchestration job enables the replicated snapshots SR598 to beactivated into datastores for active failover VMs 382. Illustratively,media agent 444 and/or media agent 494, as directed by storage manager440, cause the mirror relationship to break, e.g., by so instructingprimary storage 304 and/or failover storage 384, respectively.

At block 810, system 300 brings data storage volumes 599 online at theDR site. Illustratively, media agent 494, as directed by storage manager440, instructs failover storage 384 to bring online data storage volumes599 comprising replicated snapshot(s) SR598. In contrast to the testclone scenario in block 612, where clones of the replicated snapshotswere used as datastores, here the replicated snapshots themselves willbecome datastores for failover VMs 382.

At block 812, failover virtualization manager 383 creates a datastorefor each VM to be failed over using the replicated snapshots in thevolumes brought online in the preceding block. This block is similar toblock 706, except that here the replicated snapshots SR598 become thefailover datastores 584.

At block 814, which is analogous to block 708, failover virtualizationmanager 383 registers failover VMs 382, configures customization, andpowers on failover VMs 382.

At block 816, failover VMs 382 are operational at the DR site usingdatastores comprising data that was replicated from the source datacenter. The planned failover operation has successfully completed. Thefailover VMs 382 are now operating “live” and the selected VMs 302 arenot operational. System 300 now treats VMs 382 as source/production VMsfor future storage operations. Appropriate updates are entered intomedia agent indexes 153 at media agent 444 and media agent 494 fortracking the various snapshots. VSA data agent 492 tracks the failoverdatastores 584 as data sources for future backups of failover VMs 382.Job completion is reported to storage manager 440 by data agents andmedia agents and the DR orchestration job ends here.

FIG. 9 depicts some salient operations of block 616 in method 600. Block616 is generally directed at performing a DR orchestration job for anunplanned VM failover. The DR orchestration job is initiated and managedby storage manager 440 and involves one or more components of system300, e.g., VSA data agent 442, media agent 444, data agent 492, and/ormedia agent 494 as described in more detail below. Notably, only thesource VMs 302 administered in one or more failover groups are subjectto the DR orchestration job for the unplanned failover. Other failedsource VMs 302 that are not in a failover group will not be failed overby the illustrative DR orchestration job. These other failed VMs may berestored in the future from a VM backup copy, but they are notprotected/failed-over by the DR orchestration job.

At block 902, an unplanned failure at the source data center causessource VMs 302 to power off and causes a break in the mirrorrelationship to the DR site. The unplanned failure is detected by one ormore operating components of system 300, which triggers a DRorchestration job to be initiated for failover to the DR site. If themirror relationship between primary storage and failover storage has notbeen broken by the unplanned failure, system 300 breaks it hereaccording to block 808. The unplanned failover is made possible by allthe operations performed by blocks 602-610 (and optionally 612), whichset up all configurations and administration needed for the unplannedfailover to succeed. As before, storage manager 440 initiates andmanages the DR orchestration job for such source VMs 302 that are partof one or more failover groups set up for snap-based DR orchestration.

At block 904, which is analogous to block 810, data storage volumes arebrought online at the DR site. Media agent 494 (using information in itsmedia agent index 153) identifies the appropriate replicated snapshotsSR598 (e.g., the most recently replicated) at failover storage 384 thatare to made into datastores for the failover VMs. Failover storage 384may comprise any number of replicated snapshots SR598 generated bycountless auxiliary copy jobs, but the most recently created ones aremost desirable for the present failover. Media agent 494 identifies thedata storage volumes comprising these snapshots and instructs failoverstorage 384 to bring them online.

At block 906, which is similar to block 812, failover virtualizationmanager 383 creates a datastore for each VM to be failed over using thepreviously existing replicated snapshots SR 589.

At block 908, which is similar to block 814, failover virtualizationmanager 383 registers failover VMs 382, configures customization, andpowers on failover VMs 382.

At block 910, which is analogous to block 816, failover VMs 382 areoperational at the DR site using datastores comprising data that wasreplicated from the source data center, preferably by the most recentauxiliary copy job. The unplanned failover operation has successfullycompleted. The failover VMs 382 are now operating “live” and the failedsource VMs 302 are not operational. System 300 now treats VMs 382 assource/production VMs for future storage operations. VSA data agent 492tracks the failover datastores 584 as data sources for future backups offailover VMs 382. Job completion is reported to storage manager 440 bydata agents and media agents and the DR orchestration job ends here.

FIG. 10 depicts some salient operations of block 620 of method 600.Block 620 is generally directed at using a DR orchestration job tofailback from a DR site and optionally integrate DR data back into thesource data center. The DR orchestration job is initiated and managed bystorage manager 440 and involves one or more components of system 300,e.g., VSA data agent 442, media agent 444, data agent 492, and/or mediaagent 494 as described in more detail below.

At block 1002, system 300 reverses steps of a planned failover—from DRsite to failback site, resulting in VMs 302 at the failback site usingdatastores that are based on snapshots replicated from the DR site (see,e.g., FIG. 8). The failover VMs 382 are powered off and not operational.

At block 1004, as a result of block 1002, failed-back VMs 302 operatewith the most recent data recovered from the DR site. The steps taken inblock 1002 result in failed-back VMs 302 operating “live” at thefailback site, which is the original source data center.

At block 1006, system 300 determines whether any VMs at thesource/failback site were powered off or failed but were not failed-overto the DR site at block 614 or block 616 (VMs 302 that were“left-behind” by the failover orchestrated by the DR orchestration job).For example, VMs 302 that are not administered into a failover groupwill be “left behind” in planned or unplanned failover. If not, controlpasses to block 1020 (failback complete). If yes, control passes toblock 1008. Illustratively, storage manager 440 consults managementdatabase 146 to determine failover status. Alternatively, failoverstatus may be determined by storage manager 440 querying VSA data agent442 or VSA data agent 492.

At block 1008, system 300 uses previously created backup copies torestore one or more left-behind VMs 302 at the source/failback site. Forexample, backup copies of these left-behind VMs 302 were created priorto the planned/unplanned failover and the accompanying DR orchestrationjob. Such backup copies (e.g., 116) are governed by storage policies andschedules configured by storage manager 440 in management database 146.Such backup copies (e.g., 116) are stored locally at the source datacenter or elsewhere, without limitation. Such backup copies are wellknown in the art and are available at this point to be restored in orderto re-activate the left-behind VMs 302. Accordingly, storage manager 440initiates one or more restore operations to restore backup copies 116previously made for left-behind VMs 302. VSA data agent 442 and mediaagent 444 (or another media agent 144 with access to storage mediahosting backup copies 116) interoperate as directed by storage manager440 to populate data storage volume(s). Virtualization manager 303activates the data storage volume(s) into datastores for the left-behindVMs 302, registers said VMs 302, and powers up said VMs 302.

At block 1010, as a result of block 1008, the restored VMs 302 operatewith data recovered from previous backup copies 116 alongside thefailed-back VMs that were failed back using a DR orchestration job atblock 1002.

At block 1012, the failback operation is complete and block 620 ends.

FIG. 11 depicts an illustrative screenshot of an administrative screenin system 300 for adding a failover group. One of the administrativeoptions (1102) for the failover group is whether it will be subject toLive Sync or snap-based DR orchestration using “array basedreplication.” The terms “array-to-array replication” and “array-basedreplication” are used here as shorthand even when the source and/ordestination of the replication operation are virtualized storageresources, such as in a cloud computing environment. See, e.g., FIGS. 3Band 5B. As noted, the present screenshot depicts the distinction betweenLive Sync and snap-based DR orchestration for how system 300 will failover a certain VM failover group. Because this option is administered atthe granularity of a failover group, these options are not mutuallyexclusive within the same system 300.

FIG. 12 depicts an illustrative screenshot of an administrative screenin system 300 for editing a failover group and adding customizationdetails for mapping source to destination relationships. A number ofadministrative parameters are entered here to help identify the sourceVMs 302, any VM groups they are part of, identify their respectivedatastores, map source to failover VM hosts, administer network settingsand IP addresses, etc. without limitation. This information is used bythe DR orchestration job for failing over the particular VMs in thefailover group as described in more detail above.

FIG. 13 depicts an illustrative screenshot of an administration screenfor defining how snapshot copies are to be replicated, showing a mirrorcopy option and an alternative vault copy option. One of choices for theauxiliary copy jobs is what kind of “array-to-array” replication schemeto use. The illustrative “add snapshot copy” screen provides a choice of“mirror copy” (1302) or “vault copy” (1304) between source (304) andfailover (384) NetApp arrays, without limitation. Again, the NetAppimplementation is illustrative and not limiting.

In regard to the figures described herein, other embodiments arepossible within the scope of the present invention, such that theabove-recited components, steps, blocks, operations, messages, requests,queries, and/or instructions are differently arranged, sequenced,sub-divided, organized, and/or combined. In some embodiments, adifferent component may initiate or execute a given operation. Thescreenshots are merely illustrative to help with the reader'sunderstanding and are not to be considered limiting.

Example Embodiments

Some example enumerated embodiments of the present invention are recitedin this section in the form of methods, systems, and non-transitorycomputer-readable media, without limitation.

According to an exemplary embodiment, data storage management system fororchestrating virtual machine failover, the system comprising: a firstcomputing device comprising one or more hardware processors and computermemory; wherein the first computing is configured to: initiate asnapshot backup job by causing a primary data storage (i) to take afirst snapshot of a first data storage volume hosting a first datastorefor a first virtual machine, and (ii) to store the first snapshot at theprimary data storage, wherein the first virtual machine executes on afirst virtual machine host computing device comprising one or morehardware processors, computer memory, and a hypervisor; initiate anauxiliary copy job by causing the primary data storage to replicate thefirst snapshot to a failover data storage configured for disasterrecovery, resulting in a second snapshot stored in a second data storagevolume at the failover data storage, wherein the primary data storageand the failover data storage have a mirror-relationship that enablesreplication of snapshots therebetween; initiate a disaster recoveryorchestration job for the first virtual machine to fail over to a secondvirtual machine that is currently powered off, wherein the first virtualmachine is included in a failover group administered in the data storagemanagement system, and wherein the failover group maps the first virtualmachine to fail over to the second virtual machine, and wherein thefirst computing device is further configured to: cause a failovervirtualization manager to create, for the second virtual machine, asecond datastore based on the second snapshot in a second data storagevolume at the failover data storage; cause the failover virtualizationmanager to cause a second virtual machine host computing device to powerup the second virtual machine and to provide the second virtual machinewith access to the second datastore at the failover storage, wherein thesecond virtual machine operates with data in the second datastorereplicated from the first snapshot

The above-recited system wherein the data storage management system isconfigured to create the second datastore and to power up the secondvirtual machine with access to the second datastore on-demand afterinitiating the disaster recovery orchestration job. The above-recitedsystem wherein the snapshot-based disaster recovery (DR) job does notrequire that VMs or their corresponding datastores be actively operatingat the DR site before the DR orchestration job is initiated, i.e.,before failover, whether test clones, planned failover, or unplannedfailover. The above-recited system wherein the disaster recoveryorchestration job is for an unplanned failover of the first virtualmachine to the second virtual machine, based on using administrativesettings in a storage manager that executes on the first computingdevice.

The above-recited system wherein the disaster recovery orchestration jobis initiated based on detecting a failure at one or more of the firstvirtual machine host computing device, the primary data storage, and afirst virtualization manager associated with the first virtual machinehost computing device. The above-recited system wherein as part of thedisaster recovery orchestration job, the first computing device isfurther configured to activate, on-demand, a data agent associated withthe failover virtualization manager and a media agent associated withthe failover storage. The above-recited system wherein the first virtualmachine executes in one of: a first virtualized data center and a firstcloud computing environment; and wherein after the disaster recoveryorchestration job, the second virtual machine executes in one of:another distinct virtualized data center configured for disasterrecovery and another cloud computing environment configured for disasterrecovery. The above-recited system wherein the first computing device isfurther configured to: initiate a second disaster recovery orchestrationjob that causes the second virtual machine to fail back to the firstvirtual machine, wherein the second disaster recovery job causes a firstvirtualization manager to re-activate the first virtual machine andestablishes in the primary storage the first datastore of there-activated first virtual machine based on a snapshot replicated fromthe failover storage. The above-recited system wherein the firstcomputing device is further configured to, while performing the seconddisaster recovery orchestration job: determine that a third virtualmachine not included in the failover group is powered off and did notfail over in the disaster recovery orchestration job for the firstvirtual machine; identify a backup copy of the third virtual machine;and initiate a restore job that restores the backup copy of the thirdvirtual machine to a third datastore at the primary storage and causethe first virtualization manager to re-activate the third virtualmachine with access to the third datastore.

The above-recited system wherein the first computing is furtherconfigured to, as part of the disaster recovery orchestration job forthe first virtual machine: cause the failover storage to bring thesecond data storage volume online for access by the second virtualmachine. The above-recited system wherein the first computing is furtherconfigured to, as part of the disaster recovery orchestration job forthe first virtual machine: cause the failover virtualization manager toregister the second virtual machine with the failover virtualizationmanager. The above-recited system wherein the system further comprises asecond computing device that executes a first data agent that detectsthe failure at the first virtual machine host computing device. Theabove-recited system wherein the system further comprises a secondcomputing device that executes a first data agent that detects thefailure at the first virtual machine host computing device by way of afirst virtualization manager. The above-recited system wherein thesystem further comprises a second computing device that executes a firstmedia agent, and wherein, as part of the snapshot backup job, the firstmedia agent instructs the primary data storage to take the firstsnapshot. The above-recited system wherein the system further comprisesa second computing device that executes a first media agent, andwherein, as part of the auxiliary copy job, the first media agentinstructs the primary data storage to replicate the first snapshot tothe failover storage. The above-recited system wherein the systemfurther comprises a second computing device that executes a first mediaagent that detects the failure at the primary data storage. Theabove-recited system wherein the system further comprises a secondcomputing device that executes a first media agent that detects thefailure at the primary data storage, and wherein the failure comprises abreak in the mirror-relationship to the failover storage.

The above-recited system wherein the second data agent and the secondmedia agent execute on a backup node that comprises one or more hardwareprocessors and computer memory, and wherein the backup node iscommunicatively coupled to the failover data storage and to the failovervirtualization manager. The above-recited system wherein the second dataagent and the second media agent execute on backup node that comprises avirtual machine distinct from the second virtual machine, and whereinthe backup node is communicatively coupled to the failover data storageand to the failover virtualization manager. The above-recited systemwherein the second media agent instructs the failover data storage tobring the second data storage volume online for access by the secondvirtual machine. The above-recited system wherein the second data agentinstructs the failover virtualization manager to create the seconddatastore. The above-recited system wherein the second data agentinstructs the failover virtualization manager to power up the secondvirtual machine with access to the second datastore. The above-recitedsystem wherein the first virtual machine executes in a first virtualizeddata center and wherein, after the disaster recovery orchestration job,the second virtual machine executes in another distinct virtualized datacenter configured for disaster recovery from the first virtualized datacenter. The above-recited system wherein the first virtual machineexecutes in a first virtualized data center and wherein, after thedisaster recovery orchestration job, the second virtual machine executesin a cloud computing environment configured for disaster recovery fromthe first virtualized data center. The above-recited system wherein thefirst virtual machine executes in a cloud computing environment andwherein, after the disaster recovery orchestration job, the secondvirtual machine executes in a first virtualized data center configuredfor disaster recovery from the cloud computing environment. Theabove-recited system wherein the first virtual machine executes in afirst cloud computing environment and wherein, after the disasterrecovery orchestration job, the second virtual machine executes inexecutes in a second cloud computing environment configured for disasterrecovery from the first cloud computing environment. The above-recitedsystem wherein the system further comprises a second computing devicethat executes a first data agent associated with a first virtualizationmanager that manages the first virtual machine host computing device.The above-recited system, wherein the system further comprises a secondcomputing device that executes a first media agent associated with theprimary data storage. The above-recited system, wherein the systemfurther comprises a second computing device that executes a second dataagent associated with the failover virtualization manager. Theabove-recited system, wherein the system further comprises a secondcomputing device that executes a second media agent associated with thefailover storage.

According to another embodiment, a method for orchestrating virtualmachine failover, the method comprising: by a data storage managementsystem, initiating a disaster recovery orchestration job for a firstvirtual machine that is included in a failover group administered in thedata storage management system, wherein the disaster recoveryorchestration job comprises: powering off the first virtual machinehaving a corresponding first datastore in a primary data storage;causing the primary data storage (i) to take a first snapshot of a firstdata storage volume hosting the first datastore, and (ii) to store thefirst snapshot at the primary data storage; causing the primary datastorage to replicate the first snapshot to a failover data storageconfigured for disaster recovery, resulting in a second snapshot storedin a second data storage volume at the failover data storage, whereinthe primary data storage and the failover data storage have amirror-relationship that enables replication of snapshots therebetween;causing the mirror-relationship to break; causing the failover storageto bring the second data storage volume online; causing a failovervirtualization manager to create, for a second virtual machine that ispowered off, a second datastore based on the second snapshot in thesecond data storage volume at the failover data storage; causing thefailover virtualization manager to register the second virtual machinewith the failover virtualization manager; causing the failovervirtualization manager to cause a virtual machine host computing deviceto power up the second virtual machine and to provide the second virtualmachine with access to the second datastore at the failover storage,wherein the second virtual machine operates with data in the seconddatastore replicated from the first snapshot; and wherein the datastorage management system is configured to create the second datastoreand to power up the second virtual machine with access to the seconddatastore on-demand after initiating the disaster recovery orchestrationjob.

The above-recited method wherein the disaster recovery orchestration jobis for a planned failover of the first virtual machine to the secondvirtual machine, and wherein a storage manager initiates the disasterrecovery orchestration job. The above-recited method wherein a firstdata agent instructs a first virtualization manager to power off thefirst virtual machine. The above-recited method, wherein a first mediaagent associated with the primary data storage instructs the primarydata storage to break the mirror-relationship to the failover storage.The above-recited method, wherein as part of the disaster recoveryorchestration job, a storage manager that manages storage operations inthe data storage management system activates a second data agentassociated with the failover virtualization manager and furtheractivates a second media agent associated with the failover storage. Themethod above, wherein the second data agent and the second media agentexecute on a backup node that comprises one or more hardware processorsand computer memory, and wherein the backup node is communicativelycoupled to the failover data storage and to the failover virtualizationmanager. The method above, wherein the second data agent and the secondmedia agent execute on backup node that comprises a virtual machinedistinct from the second virtual machine, and wherein the backup node iscommunicatively coupled to the failover data storage and to the failovervirtualization manager. The above-recited method, wherein, as part of asnapshot backup job, a first media agent instructs the primary datastorage to take the first snapshot. The above-recited method, wherein,as part of an auxiliary copy job, a first media agent instructs theprimary data storage to replicate the first snapshot to the failoverstorage. The above-recited method wherein the second media agentinstructs the failover data storage to bring the second data storagevolume online for access by the second virtual machine. Theabove-recited method wherein the second data agent instructs thefailover virtualization manager to create the second datastore. Theabove-recited method wherein the second data agent instructs thefailover virtualization manager to power up the second virtual machinewith access to the second datastore. The above-recited method, whereinthe first virtual machine executes in a first virtualized data centerand wherein, after the disaster recovery orchestration job, the secondvirtual machine executes in another distinct virtualized data centerconfigured for disaster recovery from the first virtualized data center.The above-recited method, wherein the first virtual machine executes ina first virtualized data center and wherein, after the disaster recoveryorchestration job, the second virtual machine executes in a cloudcomputing environment configured for disaster recovery from the firstvirtualized data center. The above-recited method, wherein the firstvirtual machine executes in a cloud computing environment and wherein,after the disaster recovery orchestration job, the second virtualmachine executes in a first virtualized data center configured fordisaster recovery from the cloud computing environment. Theabove-recited method, wherein the first virtual machine executes in afirst cloud computing environment and wherein, after the disasterrecovery orchestration job, the second virtual machine executes inexecutes in a second cloud computing environment configured for disasterrecovery from the first cloud computing environment. The above-recitedmethod, wherein the data storage management system comprises a storagemanager that managers storage operations in the data storage managementsystem, including the disaster recovery orchestration job, and whereinthe storage manager executes on one of: a computing device comprisingone or more hardware processors and computer memory, and a virtualmachine, distinct from the first virtual machine and the second virtualmachine, that executes on a computing device comprising one or morehardware processors and computer memory. The above-recited method,wherein the data storage management system comprises a first data agentassociated with a first virtualization manager that powers off the firstvirtual machine. The above-recited method, wherein the data storagemanagement system comprises a first media agent associated with theprimary data storage. The above-recited method, wherein the data storagemanagement system comprises a second data agent associated with thefailover virtualization manager. The above-recited method, wherein thedata storage management system comprises a second media agent associatedwith the failover storage. The above-recited method further comprising:by the data storage management system, initiating a second disasterrecovery orchestration job that causes the second virtual machine tofail back to the first virtual machine, wherein the second disasterrecovery job causes a first virtualization manager to re-activate thefirst virtual machine and establishes in the primary storage the firstdatastore of the re-activated first virtual machine based on a snapshotreplicated from the failover storage. The above-recited method, whereinthe second disaster recovery orchestration job comprises: determiningthat a third virtual machine not included in the failover groupadministered at the storage manager is powered off and did not fail overin the disaster recovery orchestration job for the first virtualmachine; identifying a backup copy of the third virtual machine; andinitiating a restore job that restores the backup copy of the thirdvirtual machine to a third datastore at the primary storage and causethe first virtualization manager to re-activate the third virtualmachine with access to the third datastore.

According to yet another exemplary embodiment, a method fororchestrating virtual machine failover, the method comprising: by astorage manager that manages storage operations in a data storagemanagement system, initiating a disaster recovery orchestration job fora first virtual machine that is included in a failover groupadministered at the storage manager, wherein the disaster recoveryorchestration job comprises: powering off the first virtual machinehaving a corresponding first datastore in a primary data storage;causing the primary data storage (i) to take a first snapshot of a firstdata storage volume hosting the first datastore, and (ii) to store thefirst snapshot at the primary data storage; causing the primary datastorage to replicate the first snapshot to a failover data storageconfigured for disaster recovery, resulting in a second snapshot storedin a second data storage volume at the failover data storage, whereinthe primary data storage and the failover data storage have amirror-relationship that enables replication of snapshots therebetween;causing the mirror-relationship to break; causing the failover storageto bring the second data storage volume online; causing a failovervirtualization manager to create, for a second virtual machine that ispowered off, a second datastore based on the second snapshot in thesecond data storage volume at the failover data storage; causing thefailover virtualization manager to register the second virtual machinewith the failover virtualization manager; causing the failovervirtualization manager to cause a virtual machine host computing deviceto power up the second virtual machine and to provide the second virtualmachine with access to the second datastore at the failover storage,wherein the second virtual machine operates with data in the seconddatastore replicated from the first snapshot; and wherein the datastorage management system is configured to create the second datastoreand to power up the second virtual machine with access to the seconddatastore on-demand after initiating the disaster recovery orchestrationjob.

The above-recited method, wherein the disaster recovery orchestrationjob is for a planned failover of the first virtual machine to the secondvirtual machine, based on using administrative settings in the storagemanager. The above-recited method, wherein as part of the disasterrecovery orchestration job, the storage manager activates a second dataagent associated with the failover virtualization manager and furtheractivates a second media agent associated with the failover storage;wherein the second media agent instructs the failover data storage tobring the second data storage volume online for access by the secondvirtual machine; wherein the second data agent instructs the failovervirtualization manager to create the second datastore; and wherein thesecond data agent further instructs the failover virtualization managerto power up the second virtual machine with access to the seconddatastore. The above-recited method, wherein the data storage managementsystem comprises a first data agent associated with a firstvirtualization manager that powers off the first virtual machine;wherein the data storage management system comprises a first media agentassociated with the primary data storage; wherein the data storagemanagement system comprises a second data agent associated with thefailover virtualization manager; and wherein the data storage managementsystem comprises a second media agent associated with the failoverstorage. The above-recited method further comprising: by the storagemanager, initiating a second disaster recovery orchestration job thatcauses the second virtual machine to fail back to the first virtualmachine, wherein the second disaster recovery job causes a firstvirtualization manager to re-activate the first virtual machine andestablishes in the primary storage the first datastore of there-activated first virtual machine based on a snapshot replicated fromthe failover storage. The above-recited method, wherein the seconddisaster recovery orchestration job comprises: by the storage manager,determining that a third virtual machine not included in the failovergroup administered at the storage manager is powered off and did notfail over in the disaster recovery orchestration job for the firstvirtual machine; by the storage manager, identifying a backup copy ofthe third virtual machine; and by the storage manager, initiating arestore job that restores the backup copy of the third virtual machineto a third datastore at the primary storage and cause the firstvirtualization manager to re-activate the third virtual machine withaccess to the third datastore. The above-recited method, wherein a firstdata agent instructs a first virtualization manager to power off thefirst virtual machine. The above-recited method, wherein, as part of asnapshot backup job initiated by the storage manager, a first mediaagent instructs the primary data storage to take the first snapshot. Theabove-recited method, wherein, as part of an auxiliary copy jobinitiated by the storage manager, a first media agent instructs theprimary data storage to replicate the first snapshot to the failoverstorage. The above-recited method, wherein a first media agentassociated with the primary data storage instructs the primary datastorage to break the mirror-relationship to the failover storage. Theabove-recited method, wherein as part of the disaster recoveryorchestration job, the storage manager activates a second data agentassociated with the failover virtualization manager and furtheractivates a second media agent associated with the failover storage. Theabove-recited method, wherein the second data agent and the second mediaagent execute on a backup node that comprises one or more hardwareprocessors and computer memory, and wherein the backup node iscommunicatively coupled to the failover data storage and to the failovervirtualization manager. The above-recited method, wherein the seconddata agent and the second media agent execute on backup node thatcomprises a virtual machine distinct from the second virtual machine,and wherein the backup node is communicatively coupled to the failoverdata storage and to the failover virtualization manager. Theabove-recited method wherein the second media agent instructs thefailover data storage to bring the second data storage volume online foraccess by the second virtual machine. The above-recited method whereinthe second data agent instructs the failover virtualization manager tocreate the second datastore. The above-recited method wherein the seconddata agent instructs the failover virtualization manager to power up thesecond virtual machine with access to the second datastore. Theabove-recited method, wherein the first virtual machine executes in afirst virtualized data center and wherein, after the disaster recoveryorchestration job, the second virtual machine executes in anotherdistinct virtualized data center configured for disaster recovery fromthe first virtualized data center. The above-recited method, wherein thefirst virtual machine executes in a first virtualized data center andwherein, after the disaster recovery orchestration job, the secondvirtual machine executes in a cloud computing environment configured fordisaster recovery from the first virtualized data center. Theabove-recited method, wherein the first virtual machine executes in acloud computing environment and wherein, after the disaster recoveryorchestration job, the second virtual machine executes in a firstvirtualized data center configured for disaster recovery from the cloudcomputing environment. The above-recited method, wherein the firstvirtual machine executes in a first cloud computing environment andwherein, after the disaster recovery orchestration job, the secondvirtual machine executes in executes in a second cloud computingenvironment configured for disaster recovery from the first cloudcomputing environment. The above-recited method, wherein the datastorage management system comprises a first data agent associated with afirst virtualization manager that powers off the first virtual machine.The above-recited method, wherein the data storage management systemcomprises a first media agent associated with the primary data storage.The above-recited method, wherein the data storage management systemcomprises a second data agent associated with the failovervirtualization manager. The above-recited method, wherein the datastorage management system comprises a second media agent associated withthe failover storage.

According to another illustrative embodiment, a method for orchestratingvirtual machine failover, the method comprising: by a storage managerthat manages storage operations in a data storage management system,initiating a snapshot backup job by causing a primary data storage (i)to take a first snapshot of a first data storage volume hosting a firstdatastore for a first virtual machine, and (ii) to store the firstsnapshot at the primary data storage, wherein the first virtual machineexecutes on a first virtual machine host computing device comprising oneor more hardware processors, computer memory, and a hypervisor, andwherein the first virtual machine is included in a failover groupadministered at the storage manager; by the storage manager, initiatingan auxiliary copy job by causing the primary data storage to replicatethe first snapshot to a failover data storage configured for disasterrecovery, resulting in a second snapshot stored in a second data storagevolume at the failover data storage, wherein the primary data storageand the failover data storage have a mirror-relationship that enablesreplication of snapshots therebetween; based on a failure at one or moreof the first virtual machine host computing device and the primary datastorage, initiating, by the storage manager, a disaster recoveryorchestration job for the first virtual machine to fail over to a secondvirtual machine that is currently powered off, wherein the disasterrecovery orchestration job comprises: causing the failover storage tobring the second data storage volume online for access by the secondvirtual machine; causing a failover virtualization manager to create,for the second virtual machine, a second datastore based on the secondsnapshot in the second data storage volume at the failover data storage;causing the failover virtualization manager to register the secondvirtual machine with the failover virtualization manager; causing thefailover virtualization manager to cause a second virtual machine hostcomputing device to power up the second virtual machine and to providethe second virtual machine with access to the second datastore at thefailover storage, wherein the second virtual machine operates with datain the second datastore replicated from the first snapshot; and whereinthe data storage management system is configured to create the seconddatastore and to power up the second virtual machine with access to thesecond datastore on-demand after initiating the disaster recoveryorchestration job.

The above-recited method, wherein the disaster recovery orchestrationjob is for an unplanned failover of the first virtual machine to thesecond virtual machine, based on using administrative settings in thestorage manager. The above-recited method, wherein a first data agentdetects the failure at the first virtual machine host computing device.The above-recited method, wherein a first data agent detects the failureat the first virtual machine host computing device by way of a firstvirtualization manager. The above-recited method, wherein, as part ofthe snapshot backup job initiated by the storage manager, a first mediaagent instructs the primary data storage to take the first snapshot. Theabove-recited method, wherein, as part of the auxiliary copy jobinitiated by the storage manager, a first media agent instructs theprimary data storage to replicate the first snapshot to the failoverstorage. The above-recited method, wherein a first media agent detectsthe failure at the primary data storage. The above-recited method,wherein a first media agent detects the failure at the primary datastorage, and wherein the failure comprises a break in themirror-relationship to the failover storage. The above-recited method,wherein as part of the disaster recovery orchestration job, the storagemanager activates a second data agent associated with the failovervirtualization manager and further activates a second media agentassociated with the failover storage. The above-recited method, whereinthe second data agent and the second media agent execute on a backupnode that comprises one or more hardware processors and computer memory,and wherein the backup node is communicatively coupled to the failoverdata storage and to the failover virtualization manager. Theabove-recited method, wherein the second data agent and the second mediaagent execute on backup node that comprises a virtual machine distinctfrom the second virtual machine, and wherein the backup node iscommunicatively coupled to the failover data storage and to the failovervirtualization manager. The above-recited method wherein the secondmedia agent instructs the failover data storage to bring the second datastorage volume online for access by the second virtual machine. Theabove-recited method wherein the second data agent instructs thefailover virtualization manager to create the second datastore. Theabove-recited method wherein the second data agent instructs thefailover virtualization manager to power up the second virtual machinewith access to the second datastore. The above-recited method, whereinthe first virtual machine executes in a first virtualized data centerand wherein, after the disaster recovery orchestration job, the secondvirtual machine executes in another distinct virtualized data centerconfigured for disaster recovery from the first virtualized data center.The above-recited method, wherein the first virtual machine executes ina first virtualized data center and wherein, after the disaster recoveryorchestration job, the second virtual machine executes in a cloudcomputing environment configured for disaster recovery from the firstvirtualized data center. The above-recited method, wherein the firstvirtual machine executes in a cloud computing environment and wherein,after the disaster recovery orchestration job, the second virtualmachine executes in a first virtualized data center configured fordisaster recovery from the cloud computing environment. Theabove-recited method, wherein the first virtual machine executes in afirst cloud computing environment and wherein, after the disasterrecovery orchestration job, the second virtual machine executes inexecutes in a second cloud computing environment configured for disasterrecovery from the first cloud computing environment. The above-recitedmethod, wherein the data storage management system comprises a firstdata agent associated with a first virtualization manager that managesthe first virtual machine host computing device. The above-recitedmethod, wherein the data storage management system comprises a firstmedia agent associated with the primary data storage. The above-recitedmethod, wherein the data storage management system comprises a seconddata agent associated with the failover virtualization manager. Theabove-recited method, wherein the data storage management systemcomprises a second media agent associated with the failover storage. Theabove-recited method further comprising: by the storage manager,initiating a second disaster recovery orchestration job that causes thesecond virtual machine to fail back to the first virtual machine,wherein the second disaster recovery job causes a first virtualizationmanager to re-activate the first virtual machine and establishes in theprimary storage the first datastore of the re-activated first virtualmachine based on a snapshot replicated from the failover storage. Theabove-recited method, wherein the second disaster recovery orchestrationjob comprises: by the storage manager, determining that a third virtualmachine not included in the failover group administered at the storagemanager is powered off and did not fail over in the disaster recoveryorchestration job for the first virtual machine; by the storage manager,identifying a backup copy of the third virtual machine; and by thestorage manager, initiating a restore job that restores the backup copyof the third virtual machine to a third datastore at the primary storageand cause the first virtualization manager to re-activate the thirdvirtual machine with access to the third datastore.

According to yet another illustrative embodiment, a data storagemanagement system for orchestrating virtual machine failover, the systemcomprising: a first computing device comprising one or more hardwareprocessors and computer memory, wherein a storage manager executes onthe first computing device; wherein the first computing device executingthe storage manager is configured to: initiate a snapshot backup job bycausing a primary data storage (i) to take a first snapshot of a firstdata storage volume hosting a first datastore for a first virtualmachine, and (ii) to store the first snapshot at the primary datastorage, wherein the first virtual machine executes on a first virtualmachine host computing device comprising one or more hardwareprocessors, computer memory, and a hypervisor, and wherein the firstvirtual machine is included in a failover group administered at thestorage manager; initiate an auxiliary copy job by causing the primarydata storage to replicate the first snapshot to a failover data storageconfigured for disaster recovery, resulting in a second snapshot storedin a second data storage volume at the failover data storage, whereinthe primary data storage and the failover data storage have amirror-relationship that enables replication of snapshots therebetween;initiate a disaster recovery orchestration job for the first virtualmachine to fail over to a second virtual machine that is currentlypowered off, wherein the first computing device executing the storagemanager is further configured to: cause the failover storage to bringthe second data storage volume online for access by the second virtualmachine; cause a failover virtualization manager to create, for thesecond virtual machine, a second datastore based on the second snapshotin the second data storage volume at the failover data storage; causethe failover virtualization manager to register the second virtualmachine with the failover virtualization manager; cause the failovervirtualization manager to cause a second virtual machine host computingdevice to power up the second virtual machine and to provide the secondvirtual machine with access to the second datastore at the failoverstorage, wherein the second virtual machine operates with data in thesecond datastore replicated from the first snapshot; and wherein thedata storage management system is configured to create the seconddatastore and to power up the second virtual machine with access to thesecond datastore on-demand after initiating the disaster recoveryorchestration job.

The above-recited system wherein the disaster recovery orchestration jobis for an unplanned failover of the first virtual machine to the secondvirtual machine, based on using administrative settings in the storagemanager. The above-recited system The above-recited system, wherein thedisaster recovery orchestration job is initiated based on detecting afailure at one or more of the first virtual machine host computingdevice, the primary data storage, and a first virtualization managerassociated with the first virtual machine host computing device. Theabove-recited system, wherein the system further comprises a secondcomputing device that executes a first data agent that detects thefailure at the first virtual machine host computing device. Theabove-recited system, wherein the system further comprises a secondcomputing device that executes a first data agent that detects thefailure at the first virtual machine host computing device by way of afirst virtualization manager. The above-recited system, wherein thesystem further comprises a second computing device that executes a firstmedia agent, and wherein, as part of the snapshot backup job initiatedby the storage manager, the first media agent instructs the primary datastorage to take the first snapshot. The above-recited system, whereinthe system further comprises a second computing device that executes afirst media agent, and wherein, as part of the auxiliary copy jobinitiated by the storage manager, the first media agent instructs theprimary data storage to replicate the first snapshot to the failoverstorage. The above-recited system, wherein the system further comprisesa second computing device that executes a first media agent that detectsthe failure at the primary data storage. The above-recited system,wherein the system further comprises a second computing device thatexecutes a first media agent that detects the failure at the primarydata storage, and wherein the failure comprises a break in themirror-relationship to the failover storage. The above-recited system,wherein as part of the disaster recovery orchestration job, the storagemanager activates a second data agent associated with the failovervirtualization manager and further activates a second media agentassociated with the failover storage. The above-recited system, whereinthe second data agent and the second media agent execute on a backupnode that comprises one or more hardware processors and computer memory,and wherein the backup node is communicatively coupled to the failoverdata storage and to the failover virtualization manager. Theabove-recited system, wherein the second data agent and the second mediaagent execute on backup node that comprises a virtual machine distinctfrom the second virtual machine, and wherein the backup node iscommunicatively coupled to the failover data storage and to the failovervirtualization manager. The above-recited system wherein the secondmedia agent instructs the failover data storage to bring the second datastorage volume online for access by the second virtual machine. Theabove-recited system wherein the second data agent instructs thefailover virtualization manager to create the second datastore. Theabove-recited system wherein the second data agent instructs thefailover virtualization manager to power up the second virtual machinewith access to the second datastore. The above-recited system, whereinthe first virtual machine executes in a first virtualized data centerand wherein, after the disaster recovery orchestration job, the secondvirtual machine executes in another distinct virtualized data centerconfigured for disaster recovery from the first virtualized data center.The above-recited system, wherein the first virtual machine executes ina first virtualized data center and wherein, after the disaster recoveryorchestration job, the second virtual machine executes in a cloudcomputing environment configured for disaster recovery from the firstvirtualized data center. The above-recited system, wherein the firstvirtual machine executes in a cloud computing environment and wherein,after the disaster recovery orchestration job, the second virtualmachine executes in a first virtualized data center configured fordisaster recovery from the cloud computing environment. Theabove-recited system, wherein the first virtual machine executes in afirst cloud computing environment and wherein, after the disasterrecovery orchestration job, the second virtual machine executes inexecutes in a second cloud computing environment configured for disasterrecovery from the first cloud computing environment. The above-recitedsystem, wherein the system further comprises a second computing devicethat executes a first data agent associated with a first virtualizationmanager that manages the first virtual machine host computing device.The above-recited system, wherein the system further comprises a secondcomputing device that executes a first media agent associated with theprimary data storage. The above-recited system, wherein the systemfurther comprises a second computing device that executes a second dataagent associated with the failover virtualization manager. Theabove-recited system, wherein the system further comprises a secondcomputing device that executes a second media agent associated with thefailover storage. The above-recited system wherein the first computingdevice executing the storage manager is further configured to: initiatea second disaster recovery orchestration job that causes the secondvirtual machine to fail back to the first virtual machine, wherein thesecond disaster recovery job causes a first virtualization manager tore-activate the first virtual machine and establishes in the primarystorage the first datastore of the re-activated first virtual machinebased on a snapshot replicated from the failover storage. Theabove-recited system, wherein the first computing device executing thestorage manager is further configured to, while performing the seconddisaster recovery orchestration job: determine that a third virtualmachine not included in the failover group administered at the storagemanager is powered off and did not fail over in the disaster recoveryorchestration job for the first virtual machine; identify a backup copyof the third virtual machine; and initiate a restore job that restoresthe backup copy of the third virtual machine to a third datastore at theprimary storage and cause the first virtualization manager tore-activate the third virtual machine with access to the thirddatastore.

In other embodiments, a system or systems operates according to one ormore of the methods and/or computer-readable media recited in thepreceding paragraphs. In yet other embodiments, a method or methodsoperates according to one or more of the systems and/orcomputer-readable media recited in the preceding paragraphs. In yet moreembodiments, a non-transitory computer-readable medium or media causesone or more computing devices having one or more processors andcomputer-readable memory to operate according to one or more of thesystems and/or methods recited in the preceding paragraphs.

Terminology

Conditional language, such as, among others, “can,” “could,” “might,” or“may,” unless specifically stated otherwise, or otherwise understoodwithin the context as used, is generally intended to convey that certainembodiments include, while other embodiments do not include, certainfeatures, elements and/or steps. Thus, such conditional language is notgenerally intended to imply that features, elements and/or steps are inany way required for one or more embodiments or that one or moreembodiments necessarily include logic for deciding, with or without userinput or prompting, whether these features, elements and/or steps areincluded or are to be performed in any particular embodiment.

Unless the context clearly requires otherwise, throughout thedescription and the claims, the words “comprise,” “comprising,” and thelike are to be construed in an inclusive sense, as opposed to anexclusive or exhaustive sense, i.e., in the sense of “including, but notlimited to.” As used herein, the terms “connected,” “coupled,” or anyvariant thereof means any connection or coupling, either direct orindirect, between two or more elements; the coupling or connectionbetween the elements can be physical, logical, or a combination thereof.Additionally, the words “herein,” “above,” “below,” and words of similarimport, when used in this application, refer to this application as awhole and not to any particular portions of this application. Where thecontext permits, words using the singular or plural number may alsoinclude the plural or singular number respectively. The word “or” inreference to a list of two or more items, covers all of the followinginterpretations of the word: any one of the items in the list, all ofthe items in the list, and any combination of the items in the list.Likewise the term “and/or” in reference to a list of two or more items,covers all of the following interpretations of the word: any one of theitems in the list, all of the items in the list, and any combination ofthe items in the list.

In some embodiments, certain operations, acts, events, or functions ofany of the algorithms described herein can be performed in a differentsequence, can be added, merged, or left out altogether (e.g., not allare necessary for the practice of the algorithms). In certainembodiments, operations, acts, functions, or events can be performedconcurrently, e.g., through multi-threaded processing, interruptprocessing, or multiple processors or processor cores or on otherparallel architectures, rather than sequentially.

Systems and modules described herein may comprise software, firmware,hardware, or any combination(s) of software, firmware, or hardwaresuitable for the purposes described. Software and other modules mayreside and execute on servers, workstations, personal computers,computerized tablets, PDAs, and other computing devices suitable for thepurposes described herein. Software and other modules may be accessiblevia local computer memory, via a network, via a browser, or via othermeans suitable for the purposes described herein. Data structuresdescribed herein may comprise computer files, variables, programmingarrays, programming structures, or any electronic information storageschemes or methods, or any combinations thereof, suitable for thepurposes described herein. User interface elements described herein maycomprise elements from graphical user interfaces, interactive voiceresponse, command line interfaces, and other suitable interfaces.

Further, processing of the various components of the illustrated systemscan be distributed across multiple machines, networks, and othercomputing resources. Two or more components of a system can be combinedinto fewer components. Various components of the illustrated systems canbe implemented in one or more virtual machines, rather than in dedicatedcomputer hardware systems and/or computing devices. Likewise, the datarepositories shown can represent physical and/or logical data storage,including, e.g., storage area networks or other distributed storagesystems. Moreover, in some embodiments the connections between thecomponents shown represent possible paths of data flow, rather thanactual connections between hardware. While some examples of possibleconnections are shown, any of the subset of the components shown cancommunicate with any other subset of components in variousimplementations.

Embodiments are also described above with reference to flow chartillustrations and/or block diagrams of methods, apparatus (systems) andcomputer program products. Each block of the flow chart illustrationsand/or block diagrams, and combinations of blocks in the flow chartillustrations and/or block diagrams, may be implemented by computerprogram instructions. Such instructions may be provided to a processorof a general purpose computer, special purpose computer,specially-equipped computer (e.g., comprising a high-performancedatabase server, a graphics subsystem, etc.) or other programmable dataprocessing apparatus to produce a machine, such that the instructions,which execute via the processor(s) of the computer or other programmabledata processing apparatus, create means for implementing the actsspecified in the flow chart and/or block diagram block or blocks. Thesecomputer program instructions may also be stored in a non-transitorycomputer-readable memory that can direct a computer or otherprogrammable data processing apparatus to operate in a particularmanner, such that the instructions stored in the computer-readablememory produce an article of manufacture including instruction meanswhich implement the acts specified in the flow chart and/or blockdiagram block or blocks. The computer program instructions may also beloaded to a computing device or other programmable data processingapparatus to cause operations to be performed on the computing device orother programmable apparatus to produce a computer implemented processsuch that the instructions which execute on the computing device orother programmable apparatus provide steps for implementing the actsspecified in the flow chart and/or block diagram block or blocks.

Any patents and applications and other references noted above, includingany that may be listed in accompanying filing papers, are incorporatedherein by reference. Aspects of the invention can be modified, ifnecessary, to employ the systems, functions, and concepts of the variousreferences described above to provide yet further implementations of theinvention. These and other changes can be made to the invention in lightof the above Detailed Description. While the above description describescertain examples of the invention, and describes the best modecontemplated, no matter how detailed the above appears in text, theinvention can be practiced in many ways. Details of the system may varyconsiderably in its specific implementation, while still beingencompassed by the invention disclosed herein. As noted above,particular terminology used when describing certain features or aspectsof the invention should not be taken to imply that the terminology isbeing redefined herein to be restricted to any specific characteristics,features, or aspects of the invention with which that terminology isassociated. In general, the terms used in the following claims shouldnot be construed to limit the invention to the specific examplesdisclosed in the specification, unless the above Detailed Descriptionsection explicitly defines such terms. Accordingly, the actual scope ofthe invention encompasses not only the disclosed examples, but also allequivalent ways of practicing or implementing the invention under theclaims.

To reduce the number of claims, certain aspects of the invention arepresented below in certain claim forms, but the applicant contemplatesother aspects of the invention in any number of claim forms. Forexample, while only one aspect of the invention is recited as ameans-plus-function claim under 35 U.S.C sec. 112(f) (AIA), otheraspects may likewise be embodied as a means-plus-function claim, or inother forms, such as being embodied in a computer-readable medium. Anyclaims intended to be treated under 35 U.S.C. § 112(f) will begin withthe words “means for,” but use of the term “for” in any other context isnot intended to invoke treatment under 35 U.S.C. § 112(f). Accordingly,the applicant reserves the right to pursue additional claims afterfiling this application, in either this application or in a continuingapplication.

What is claimed is:
 1. A data storage management system fororchestrating virtual machine failover, the system comprising: a firstcomputing device comprising one or more hardware processors; wherein thefirst computing device is configured to: cause a primary data storage(i) to take a first snapshot of a first data storage volume hosting afirst datastore for a first virtual machine, and (ii) to store the firstsnapshot at the primary data storage, wherein the first virtual machineexecutes on a first virtual machine host computing device comprising oneor more hardware processors and a hypervisor; cause the primary datastorage to replicate the first snapshot to a second snapshot stored in asecond data storage volume at a failover data storage that is distinctfrom the primary data storage, wherein the primary data storage and thefailover data storage have a mirror-relationship that enablesreplication of snapshots therebetween; initiate a disaster recoveryorchestration job for the first virtual machine to fail over to a secondvirtual machine that is currently powered off, based on administrativesettings that define the second virtual machine as a failoverdestination of the first virtual machine; cause a failovervirtualization manager to create, for the second virtual machine, asecond datastore based on the second snapshot in a second data storagevolume at the failover data storage; and cause the failovervirtualization manager to cause a second virtual machine host computingdevice to power up the second virtual machine and to provide the secondvirtual machine with access to the second datastore at the failover datastorage, wherein the second virtual machine operates with data in thesecond datastore replicated from the first snapshot; and wherein thesecond datastore is created, and the second virtual machine is poweredup, on-demand by the disaster recovery orchestration job.
 2. The systemof claim 1, wherein the disaster recovery orchestration job is for anunplanned failover of the first virtual machine to the second virtualmachine.
 3. The system of claim 1, wherein the disaster recoveryorchestration job is initiated based on detecting a failure at one ormore of: (i) the first virtual machine host computing device, (ii) theprimary data storage, and (iii) a first virtualization managerassociated with the first virtual machine host computing device.
 4. Thesystem of claim 1, wherein as part of the disaster recoveryorchestration job, the first computing device is further configured toactivate, on-demand, a data agent associated with the failovervirtualization manager and a media agent associated with the failoverdata storage.
 5. The system of claim 1, wherein the first virtualmachine executes in one of: a first virtualized data center and a firstcloud computing environment; and wherein after the disaster recoveryorchestration job, the second virtual machine executes in one of:another distinct virtualized data center configured for disasterrecovery and another cloud computing environment configured for disasterrecovery.
 6. The system of claim 1, wherein the first computing deviceis further configured to: initiate a second disaster recoveryorchestration job that causes the second virtual machine to fail back tothe first virtual machine, wherein the second disaster recoveryorchestration job causes a first virtualization manager to re-activatethe first virtual machine and establishes in the primary data storagethe first datastore of the re-activated first virtual machine based on asnapshot replicated from the failover data storage.
 7. The system ofclaim 6, wherein the first computing device is further configured to,during the second disaster recovery orchestration job: determine that athird virtual machine is not included in a failover group that comprisesthe first virtual machine; determine that the third virtual machine ispowered off and did not fail over in the disaster recovery orchestrationjob; identify a backup copy of the third virtual machine; initiate arestore job that restores the backup copy of the third virtual machineto a third datastore at the primary data storage; and cause the firstvirtualization manager to re-activate the third virtual machine withaccess to the third datastore.
 8. The system of claim 1, wherein thefirst virtual machine and the second virtual machine are part of afailover group defined in the administrative settings.
 9. The system ofclaim 1, wherein the first computing device is further configured tocause the mirror-relationship to break when initiating the disasterrecovery orchestration job.
 10. The system of claim 1, wherein thedisaster recovery orchestration job causes the mirror-relationship tobreak.
 11. The system of claim 1, wherein the first computing deviceexecutes a storage manager that controls storage operations in the datastorage management system.
 12. A non-transitory computer-readable mediumcomprising instructions that, when executed by a first computing devicecomprising one or more hardware processors, cause first computing deviceto: initiate a disaster recovery orchestration job for a first virtualmachine, wherein the disaster recovery orchestration job comprises: oneof: cause the first virtual machine to be powered off, wherein the firstvirtual machine has a corresponding first datastore in a primary datastorage, and detect that the first virtual machine has failed; cause theprimary data storage (i) to take a first snapshot of a first datastorage volume hosting the first datastore, and (ii) to store the firstsnapshot at the primary data storage; cause the primary data storage toreplicate the first snapshot to a second snapshot at a failover datastorage that is distinct from the primary data storage, wherein thesecond snapshot is stored in a second data storage volume at thefailover data storage, and wherein the primary data storage and thefailover data storage have a mirror-relationship that enablesreplication of snapshots therebetween; one of: cause themirror-relationship to break, and confirm that the mirror-relationshipis broken; cause the failover data storage to bring the second datastorage volume online; cause a failover virtualization manager tocreate, for a second virtual machine that is powered off, a seconddatastore based on the second snapshot in the second data storage volumeat the failover data storage; cause the failover virtualization managerto cause a virtual machine host computing device to power up the secondvirtual machine and to provide the second virtual machine with access tothe second datastore at the failover data storage, wherein the secondvirtual machine operates with data in the second datastore replicatedfrom the first snapshot; and wherein the second datastore is created,and the second virtual machine is powered up, on-demand by the disasterrecovery orchestration job.
 13. The non-transitory computer-readablemedium of claim 12, wherein the first virtual machine has failed due toone or more of: (i) a failure at a first virtual machine host computingdevice that hosts the first virtual machine, (ii) a failure at theprimary data storage, and (iii) a failure at a first virtualizationmanager associated with the first virtual machine host computing device.14. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 12, wherein theinstructions further cause the first computing device to activate,on-demand, a data agent associated with the failover virtualizationmanager and a media agent associated with the failover data storage. 15.The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 12, wherein thefirst virtual machine executes in one of: a first virtualized datacenter and a first cloud computing environment; and wherein after thedisaster recovery orchestration job, the second virtual machine executesin one of: another distinct virtualized data center configured fordisaster recovery and another cloud computing environment configured fordisaster recovery.
 16. The non-transitory computer-readable medium ofclaim 12, wherein the instructions further cause the first computingdevice to initiate a second disaster recovery orchestration job thatcauses the second virtual machine to fail back to the first virtualmachine, wherein the second disaster recovery orchestration job causes afirst virtualization manager to re-activate the first virtual machineand establishes in the primary data storage the first datastore of there-activated first virtual machine based on a snapshot replicated fromthe failover data storage.
 17. The non-transitory computer-readablemedium of claim 16, wherein the instructions further cause the firstcomputing device to: determine that a third virtual machine is notincluded in a failover group that comprises the first virtual machine;determine that the third virtual machine is powered off and did not failover in the disaster recovery orchestration job; identify a backup copyof the third virtual machine; initiate a restore job that restores thebackup copy of the third virtual machine to a third datastore at theprimary data storage; and cause the first virtualization manager tore-activate the third virtual machine with access to the thirddatastore.
 18. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 12,wherein the first virtual machine and the second virtual machine arepart of a failover group defined in administrative settings.
 19. Thenon-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 12, wherein theinstructions further cause the first computing device to control storageoperations in a data storage management system.
 20. The non-transitorycomputer-readable medium of claim 12, wherein the instructions furthercause the first computing device to instruct a data agent to cause afirst virtualization manager to power off the first virtual machine.